Team Member
Graeme Kelly
Director, Operations
Graeme has overall responsibility for the Operations and Decontamination services provided to North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust. This includes its sites at North Tees University Hospital, Hartlepool University Hospital, Peterlee Community Hospital, the Tees Valley Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) in Stockton, the One Life Centre in Hartlepool, Lawson Street Health Centre in Stockton and a broad range of community-based services. His team also provides services to other acute hospitals, as well as to a number of private-sector health and care companies.
Graeme oversees a workforce of approximately 650 colleagues who play a pivotal role in supporting the delivery of exceptional patient and health support services. He began his career within the NHS in a clinical capacity, spending six years as an Auxiliary Nurse specialising in Medicine. It was during this role that he saw first-hand the critical importance of hygiene and decontamination standards within a healthcare environment, and the direct impact this has on patient experience and safety. Graeme then moved into an administrative role as a Ward Clerk Supervisor before becoming a Bed Manager. Over time, he gravitated more and more towards this area, graduating with an MBA from Teesside University in 2010, and a degree in Decontamination Sciences from Kingston University in 2013.
Decontamination
As the nominated Decontamination Lead for the Trust, Graeme shapes the strategic direction of decontamination services and has revolutionised its approach to this, introducing ward hygiene audits, touchpoint cleaning regimes and the installation of a sited decontamination room, Vaproquip – the only one in Europe. He also established our regionally acclaimed mattress decontamination facility, which services over 1,200 mattresses per month for our Trust and for others in the region. He is experienced in portfolio management of medical instrument sterilisation and endoscope decontamination, general, deep and touchpoint cleaning, bio-decontamination, endoscopy high level disinfection and instrument sterilisation. This, supported by a comprehensive understanding of legislation and regulatory requirements including NHS Healthcare Cleaning Standards and JAG Decontamination Standards, means he is instrumental not only in continuously improving standards through the use of modern techniques and technologies, but equally plays a crucial role in the development of pioneering new products and services, and the provision of these to our Trust and to private health and care sector organisations in our region.
Operations
Graeme oversees services including Domestics, Mattresses and Deep Cleaning, Portering, Transport, Mail Room, Catering (colleague, public and patient), Security, Car Parking, Linen/Sewing, Quality Standards and the Medical Equipment Library provided by NTH Solutions to all sites operated by our Trust.