• Staff at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust are celebrating National Facilities Management Day
• As the backbone of the Trust, the varied roles across iFM Bolton are highlighted
• iFM teams help deliver more than half a million meals to patients and handle thousands of estate requests

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust is marking National Estates and Facilities Day 2025 (Wednesday 18 June), celebrating the amazing efforts of the 567 people that work in facility services at Royal Bolton Hospital and across the community health centres of Bolton.

In the past year, iFM Bolton logged 57,452 jobs through the Portering system, 13,855 estates requests were completed and an incredible 500,118 lunches and suppers were served to the hospital’s inpatients.

Nationally, estates and facilities services are estimated to make up 8% of the workforce, with around 114,000 people working nationally in NHS healthcare facilities management.

iFM’s Grounds and Garden team were recognised by Trust for looking after the hospital site during the cold weather

At Bolton, iFM manage and employ the facilities staff covering a wide range of roles, including Estates (plumbers, joiners, electricians, decorators), Grounds & Gardens, Car Parking, Stores, Logistics, Procurement, Domestics, Catering, Portering, HSDU, Telecomms, Helpdesk, Transport, EBME, Uniform and Laundry services, Security, all of our colleagues out in the community, and the wonderful iFM admin, HR and Business Support staff.

These staff are the backbone of the Trust, playing a critical part in keeping the services running by ensuring that healthcare buildings are modern, safe and clean. They are critical to both the patient journey and experience.

iFM’s security team received a Trust FABB Award for their ongoing commitment to keeping staff and patients safe

Staff are often recognised for going the extra mile through the Trust’s monthly and annual FABB Awards. Most recently the Security Team, for their dedication to keeping the hospital safe for colleagues, patients and visitors, and the Grounds and Garden team for keeping the grounds safe, whatever the weather.

Tyrone Roberts, Chief Nurse at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, posted on social media about the perfectionism from one of the Domestics, Gill Mason:

We want to give a shout out and thank you to Domestic, Gill Mason! Your sheer hard work and dedication to cleanliness is second to none! Look at those floors. Thank you for everything you do to make sure our hospital looks the best it can be!

The facilities staff have played a huge part in the major changes that have taken place across the hospital site in recent years, to name a few:

• The £19.6m Elective Care Centre, which meant the site can now boast four ultra-modern theatres designed to work flexibly and adapt for inpatient and day case adult patients.
• Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC), of which thousands of patients benefit from quicker and easier access to vital tests and scans to help diagnose and treat a range of conditions much sooner.
• The Maternity transformation programme £38 million redevelopment of the Maternity and Women’s Health Unit which will provide state-of-the-art facilities for women, babies, and families across Bolton and beyond.

It may be surprising to know that for any project, large or small, there are usually three to four different facilities services involved, from the Capital Projects team with the initial plans, to the Health and Safety, Estates, Porters and then Domestics, before handing over to the healthcare professionals.

Karen Elmer, Executive Director of People and Culture for iFM Bolton, said:

Sometimes the work undertaken by staff in facilities management is so professional and seamless, that it can go undetected in the busy healthcare environment.

“The truth is without the work that they do, Bolton hospital and the community buildings simply wouldn’t be able to run. This only highlights the importance of the roles they play in making sure the community of Bolton receive the best care possible.

“We want to make sure that our staff understand just how valued they are and we are dedicating today to everyone who works within iFM and facilities management across the NHS.

To find out more about the work of iFM Bolton, visit the Trust’s website.