Both based near Five Oaks, the Sterile Services and Laundry departments are areas that largely go unnoticed.
Louise Langlois, manager at the Sterile Services Department, runs a huge operation that sees lorries full of surgical equipment travelling back and forth from St Saviour to Gloucester Street five times a day. A total of 15 staff work seven days a week to keep the system going, with one cleaning cycle for equipment taking as long as six hours.
State-of-the-art equipment aids the workers in an operation where hygiene and health and safety are paramount.
Ms Langlois said: ‘Each piece comes in and is thoroughly cleaned in different stages. There are many different checks, both manual and with technology, that have to take place before we can send things back.
‘If one thing goes wrong, the whole cleaning process has to start again. There are procedures and checks that need doing when something doesn’t arrive or isn’t what we expect, as every item is tracked.
‘Everything is checked many times; some things are cleaned by hand or, at times, others are cleaned using big machines. It is a big operation that takes place, with lots of responsibility of those who work here.
‘They are unnoticed really being up here but the work they do is essential and they do a great job.’
Between January and November last year more than 53,000 trays passed through the department and, with the ever-increasing population and more people needing medical treatment, the workload is growing all the time.
Full training takes 18 months to complete, with staff also doubling up to clean equipment from other areas such as Overdale Hospital.
Ms Langlois added: ‘Everyone has their own coloured or marked pen so when a tray arrives at the Hospital, and it has a pen in it, we know who has done it. Then that tray has to be sorted all over again.’
Contingency plans are also in place for major disasters or incidents, when surgical equipment is in high demand, but thankfully that plan is very rarely put into action.
Just across the road, huge washing machines and tumble-dryers are constantly running, as the laundry workforce keeps various sites supplied with clean linen, scrubs and other items.
The staff at the site handle 115,000kg of laundry every week.
Manager Matthew Gallichan said: ‘We get a number of lorries every day from the Hospital, and others from places like Overdale. It is a big operation.
‘We operate to a very high quality, and the staff take great pride in what they do. We aren’t seen up here but the job is key. Nurses want their cupboards to be full of sheets and, if they are, we have done our job.’
In previous years before technology improved, staff would sometimes find unwanted items within linen and hospital sheets, but that no longer happens.
Things they do find are clothes from patients admitted to hospital, jewellery and other items which do not always find their way back to the rightful owners.
Mr Gallichan added: ‘We get personal items and clothes in which we wash and keep here for six months. Some stuff is returned to people who come for it, but some stuff is not.
‘We don’t give it to local charities because someone wouldn’t want to see, for example, a stranger walking around in something sentimental that belonged to them and something they thought they had lost. Because of that we send the clothes to charities overseas where they are given out.
‘We used to find some weird things within sheets. For example, one day there was a full plaster cast in one that people at the Hospital had missed.
‘Thankfully we don’t see that any more.’
