After being a roadie and following his favourite bands on tour, fresh-faced 18 year-old Allan Wood decided in it was time to get a ‘proper job’, and his then girlfriend gave him a push to ‘go off and get yersel’ away to work’.
Keen to get married to his teenage sweet-heart, Allan joined the NHS in 1978 as an operating department orderly. Some 40-plus-years later, he’s still here. Same job, but he says he is just even better at it. Not one to come to work for the money, sixty-two year old Allan doesn’t plan to stop working any time soon: unless he can’t stand up, he says.
Tell me about your role as an operating department orderly, what does it entail?
Well, I come to work around 7.45am and I am here until it ends – doesn’t matter if it goes on and on – I am here to stay. My role is to set up the theatre trollies for my department, to make sure there is enough oxygen, scrubs for staff to wear, to go through all the trays to make sure there is the right equipment there before the operation starts. I know my job inside out, back to front and backwards.
I’m always on the go, I never stop! I look after three theatres here in Leazes Wing of the hospital, including one upstairs in our Plastics department – these are my theatres to look after and I love it.
How long have you worked at the Trust?
I’ve worked at the Trust for over 40 years. I got a job because I wanted to get married and get a mortgage really. My then girlfriend (she is my wife now) – Heather – we’ve been together since we were teenagers, so coming on 50 years. She also works in the NHS here in our Maternity department.
What is your favourite part of your job?
Coming to work and working with all these amazing people that I work with. You don’t get any better than the people that I get to work with. It’s not the work, you know, it is every day work and sometimes it can be a little mundane. It is the people that I come to work for. We have a ball down here in theatres, we’ve laughed for 40 years together. They are beautiful lovely people; we are like family.
We all know each other so well, each other’s’ quirks and we get on. We have a good laugh together, but if it gets serious, we all come together as a team and talk about it. That’s how we keep going, it’s all about team work.
If I came to work for the money, I wouldn’t come. We are all here for one thing, without that patient coming through the door we wouldn’t have a job. We are nothing without the patient. I just do my little bit pushing them around making them laugh all day long.
What are your interests outside of work?
I love music. I used to be a bit of a roadie years ago, before I came to work here. I still like to go and see bands, 70s and 80s music, such as Slade, Showaddywaddy.
I have a friend who works in this department, we both go and see bands together. We usually go about ten times a year and we have a cup of tea, fish and chips and then we go and see the band with a pint.
I can play the drums but I don’t, I bang on talking enough here.
What would you say to someone who is interested in working for the NHS?
There are so many careers in the NHS, the door is open and there is many different paths for you to go down. It is a fabulous place to start your working career – and end your working career really.
