Behind Every Doctor and Nurse: Meet the 40% of NHS Staff Who Keep Our Hospitals Running
As the Our Health Heroes Awards mark their 10th anniversary, the spotlight falls on the porters, cleaners, and receptionists the NHS couldn't function without
When Glen Stevenson clocks in for his night shift at Inverclyde Royal Hospital in Greenock, he doesn't reach for a stethoscope or pull on surgical gloves. He picks up a porter's uniform — the same one he's been wearing, in various iterations, for more than half a century.
Glen is one of approximately 400,000 people across the UK who keep the NHS running from behind the scenes: the porters, cleaners, receptionists, gardeners, and security guards who rarely make headlines but without whom the health service would grind to a halt.
This year, as the Our Health Heroes Awards celebrate their 10th anniversary, these workers are finally getting the recognition they deserve. Remarkably, around 40 per cent of all nominations go to non-clinical staff — a figure that tells its own story about who the public really notices and values when they walk through hospital doors.
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