Craig West is a senior mechanical engineer for building engineering maintenance, which is part of Capital, Estates and Facilities Management. Craig was previously in the Royal Navy.
I love my role and working at CUH. I am a self-confessed complete engineering geek and feel privileged that the work we do has a huge impact on the care received by our patients.
It’s not just a job, it’s more of a way of life as what we do is much, much, bigger than any one individual.
I have made some great friendships working within the Trust, it makes work even more enjoyable when you get to work with great people. There are different things I get to do each week and no two weeks are the same
I started working at CUH in 2012. I had previously been working for a medical gas contractor after leaving the Royal Navy.
I joined the Royal Navy in 1999 where I got to see much of the best and worst that world has to offer. Due to my skillset, I was deployed to different conflict environments and also provided humanitarian aid in others. These years didn’t give me the technical skills that I needed to be an Engineer; these came later.
Serving in the military was responsible for shaping me into who I am today and why I was drawn to serve now only under a different umbrella – the NHS.
I started at CUH as an assistant engineer and after going back to college and a few years hard work I was successful in becoming a hospital engineer, responsible for many of the different building services. In 2018 I moved to work with the team at the Royal Papworth Hospital, however moved back to CUH in 2021, and have recently been promoted to Senior Engineer.
Each day at work starts with a 12 mile cycle into site! My days consist of meeting with key stakeholders regarding service interruptions for essential maintenance works. Working with project teams to ensure that refurbishment/new build works are to the required standard ensuring our buildings perform well for their users and with other team members in Building Engineering Maintenance to ensure that our buildings infrastructure and services are working as best as they can. There is lots of problem solving, on occasion, some emergency response and working with the team
We deal with all sorts of emergency situations, fire, flood, and loss of power, loss of heating and extreme weather. We handle it all and do our best to minimise the impact on patients and staff.
I always like to think of the teamwork within the Capital, Estates and Facilities Management (CEFM) team along the lines that “it takes more than a pilot to get a plane in the air” over the years this has proved to be true on so many occasions, especially during COVID-19.
Everyone working in healthcare is responsible for every person that gets to go home after being treated here. We all have a huge part to play and no role should be understated.
I know that if I do my job correctly, I’m helping in some way or another and it makes me feel proud of what my team, colleagues and I do.