NHS 75 - Fantastic family foursome providing patient care for over 75 years
Katy and Michael Noakes first met at Basildon Hospital, and are now married, and even Katy’s mum and dad work at the same hospital site!
All of which means working at Basildon Hospital is more of a family affair than it is for most people, clocking up over an amazing 75 years of caring for patients between them.
Katy is a Clinical Nurse Specialist, Michael is a Portering Manager, Katy’s dad, Roy Seymour, also works in portering – which he has done for 17 years – and Katy’s mum, Barbara Seymour, is a Data Audit Clerk on Roding Ward, a role she has done around 14 years.
Katy is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Inpatient Pain Management department, and has been part of the Trust since 1999, where she began as a staff nurse in the Intensive Care Unit.
She says that her mum, dad and husband rarely see each other at work, many of them working in very different parts of the large hospital, but it doesn’t make it any less special.
Katy said: “It feels great to be working in the same place with my parents and husband. In fact, I met Michael here at work in 2001 at an event organised by the one of the departments. None of us started working at the Trust for each other, but it is absolutely amazing to be working at the same place.”
And part of that amazingness is how the NHS has a real feeling of camaraderie about it, which is great for staff and also patients.
Katy said: “I work with a team that gets along very well and is very supportive, I also love to chat with the patients and their relatives, which makes them feel at ease and creates a real bond. On both fronts it feels really like a family.”
It was Michael who started his NHS career at Basildon first, back in 1992, as a Bank Catering Assistant, and since then he has pretty much covered every diverse role in the department, from Switchboard Operator to Head Porter in 2000, and is now Portering Manager.
Michael said: “I am very passionate about patient care, and my family are the same. It feels nice to be able to help the patients working in the same place.
“Working at the Trust always had a feeling of family, which only got intensified while we worked through the pandemic. It brought us even closer as a family and as a team; like a bad thing made something good happen.”