Spotlight on Richard Forster – Field Service Engineer for Courtney Thorne

This month’s Spotlight falls on one of our own team members, Richard Forster. Richard was one of many at Courtney Thorne who has been working throughout the Pandemic – ensuring Care Homes and Hospitals have had their Nurse Call Systems serviced and installing new systems where required.

How long have you been with Courtney Thorne?

I joined three years ago from an engineering background.

Could you explain a little bit about your role?

I have a varied role which includes the installation, commissioning and servicing of Courtney Thorne nurse call systems in care homes and hospitals. Typically systems are worked on whilst residents and patients are occupying the homes and hospitals, so we regularly interact with them throughout the day.  My colleagues and I are also responsible for fixing system faults and breakages. We operate a 24/7 service and fortunately most problems we manage to fix over the phone often with a remote diagnostic link to the customer’s system which minimises the customer’s system downtime. Customers work in busy stressed situations, so in answering technical phone calls I try communicating in a calm, positive and professional manner when solving queries and problems. Following each job, I have some admin to do including logging completed jobs into our management system and communicating outcomes with Sales, Customer Service and our Technical Services department. Making sure that systems are fitted and maintained to Courtney Thornes’s high standards is very important to me.

What challenges have you faced within your role during the COVID pandemic?

There was a huge increase in the number of installations required for NHS Trusts setting up Covid wards and temporary hospitals. This meant that my colleagues and I were spending virtually every other week away from home in during the height of the pandemic.  Holiday leave was put on hold whilst all of us in Courtney Thorne got down to the task in hand. I was particularly proud to have been involved in the UK’s largest Covid Hospital when we all spent a very long weekend in Cardiff installing the Dragon’s Heart Field Hospital system. With over 50 wards and 1000 beds which had to be completed and commissioned in a very short timescale.

How did you overcome those challenges?

The only way to overcome the challenge is to get your head down and get on with it,      unprecedented times meant unprecedented actions. I often saw firsthand how those working in care homes and hospitals were doing the same – they are the real heroes.

Has technology helped customers overcome challenges throughout the pandemic?

Certainly, with our remote diagnostic technology, many customer requests are resolved without the need to visit the site. Additionally, we provided training over the telephone so that customers could fix simple faults themselves if we were prevented from visiting sites due to Covid. The Courtney Thorne system being wireless is simple to operate and easy to add or replace components.

How do you see care technology progressing over the next 5 years?

I can see it become more wireless network-based and using Apps increasingly. With Courtney Thorne introducing its App-based solution I can see more and more care technology using smart mobile devices.

In what ways have you and your customers had to adapt over the last year?

The use of face masks is obviously commonplace along with hand gels and handwashing every time you touch something. We have strict pre-visit processes to follow including getting written confirmation from customers about the Covid status in their site. We all carry out our own personal temperature check each morning, and in most care facilities we are asked to take a lateral flow test before entering the site, this alone adds an extra 30 minutes for each visit. As a team however we are particularly proud that despite the environments we work in every day, none of us has contracted Covid-19 so the measures we and our customers are taking are protecting us, and those in the homes and wards we visit.

We’re a year into the Pandemic now – are you seeing more green shoots of positivity?

Slow and steady, nobody knows what’s around the corner, but time is a great healer. We are as busy as ever with lots of new systems to install and services to complete. I feel lucky in some respects, working for Courtney Thorne and in the healthcare sector I have been able to work throughout, I am looking forward to being able to go away on holiday in 2021 though.

Written by

Barry Vacher

Date

26.02.21