Hi, my name is David Barker, and I am a Senior Project Engineer working in the Capital Planning and Development Team, which is part of Capital, Estates and Facilities Management.
My role is mainly focused on the successful delivery of construction projects which can range from large scanner equipment replacements through to internal refurbishments and new builds. I bring over 30 years of experience working in the construction sector to the team having first qualified as an apprentice electrician and controls specialist in the early 1990’s, and then moving on to construction project management and engineering with the Ministry of Defence whilst continuing to strengthen my qualifications on a part time day-release basis.
In my current role I both lead technically complex projects as well as providing technical support to several partner Project Managers on a variety of different schemes.
I joined CUH is 2015 as a Hospital Engineer working in the Estates Maintenance section delivering maintenance projects including the refurbishment of a number of lifts and various other electrical and mechanical upgrades, such as nurse call systems and site-wide Low Voltage and High Voltage improvements. When I joined, I was not familiar with specific healthcare requirements however I was familiar with some NHS mechanical and electrical requirements which were derived from Ministry of Defence documents that I knew inside out!
In 2017 I joined the Capital Planning and Development Team and oversaw the engineering of a number of schemes including the relocation of the Haematology Day Unit and the renovation of a couple of floors in the old LMB building to provide a temporary home for the Histopathology Laboratory. I was delighted to engineer the new Cambridge Infusion Centre which provided a much-needed purpose designed space for that team and their patients.
I really enjoy working together with the team to deliver improvements to patients, staff and visitors across the estate which improves the quality of life, customer experience and safety.
Some projects show obvious improvements from an aesthetic perspective such as a shiny new ward or clinic, but often we deliver un-seen improvements to infrastructure which provide increased resilience and increased capacity and safety. I really enjoy working together with internal and external stakeholders to make sure that all valid points of view are considered so we can deliver a project to the end users which meets their needs, both for the now and for the future.
This enables me to build close relationships with our clinical teams and this helps me to better understand what they do for the patient and how we can support that better.
As an electrical engineer, I am one of the Trust’s electrical Authorised Persons which basically means as a team we control the safe system of work to permit others to work safely on our Low Voltage electrical infrastructure. We review requests for new supplies and any site capacity issues to ensure that we continue to adhere to the relevant Department of Health requirements.
My role plays an important part in the welfare of patients providing relaxing surroundings with bright and fresh areas to help put patients and visitors at ease, then, behind the scenes, providing a much safer environment from a ventilation, fire safety and electrical safety perspective. It is great to see how this work has a positive impact on people’s lives.