IHEEM PRESIDENT INTERVIEW
to Divisional manager in the Estates Department at the Royal Victoria Hospital, before later becoming Head of Estates Operations. He explained: “In 1990 Northern Ireland’s health service rationalised its estate, going from approximately 16 hospitals to five Trusts, and I was appointed Head of Estates Operations for the Belfast Trust in 2012. It is now one of Europe’s biggest such organisations, with 22,000 employees, and a £1.6 bn budget. The Trust was formed from the amalgamation of six Trusts, and with it now encompassing health and social care, not only do we look after acute and other hospitals, but also community facilities – such as doctors’ surgeries, dentists, and health and wellbeing centres, right across Belfast, representing about 50% of the Northern Irish healthcare system.” I wondered how the role had changed. He said: “Hospitals have certainly become more complex, technology has changed, and continues to evolve rapidly, and the expectations, and – correspondingly – the skills in healthcare engineering and estate management have grown. The standards and regulations on the condition of the estate are far higher, with, the expectancy both of minimal downtime, and that plant and equipment will function both optimally and sustainably.”
The hospital portfolio that Nigel Keery and his Estates team looks after is a sizeable one. It includes (clockwise from top left): The Belfast City Hospital, the Mater Infirmorum Hospital, the Royal Jubilee Maternity Hospital, the Royal Victoria main hospital, the RVH Belfast Hospital For Sick Children, and the RVH Critical Care Centre.
Biggest gains Clearly a memorable 11-year spell with the shipbuilder, but I wondered what Nigel Keery thinks he gained most from his time there. He answered: “The ability to think for myself and work independently. That was particularly valuable when I worked overseas for 6-8 years for Harland and Wolff as a guarantor. Whenever a customer bought a ship,” he explained, “they would get the service of a person called a guarantor. I went on a few ships as the electrical guarantor, which meant addressing any electrical issues on the ship. You also did your watch routine with the crew, and I spent a period in Greece, taking oil storage vessels or oil tankers, and bringing them up to up to the latest pollution regulation standards. They were then used for oil storage and oil brokering. As the guarantor you were on the ship representing the manufacturer. There was usually a mechanical engineer and sometimes a naval architect, plus also an electrical engineer on board. Your job was to stay with the ship for up to a year. I ended up on so many ships my passport got full with stamps. By the time I left Harland and Wolff I was the Electrical Test House Commissioning manager, and one of the company’s youngest senior managers.” In 1989, after 11 enjoyable and educative years at Harland and Wolff, Nigel Keery felt he wanted to ‘diversify’ and broaden his experience. He explained: “Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital had a central generator system with HV generators which Harland and Wolff maintained, and I was asked if I’d think about taking a job in the health service. At the time I was thinking about emigrating to Canada, so I initially saw the job as something of a stopgap. However, once I started in the NHS, I never looked back.” Joining the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust as a Works officer – a management grade, he progressed
26 Health Estate Journal November 2024
A pressurised role Nigel Keery has around 200 staff reporting to him, plus external contractors across Belfast. I reckoned it must be a very pressurised role. “It has been at times,” he acknowledged, “but you grow into it. When you’ve worked in the field for so long and have the support of a good team, things that would have really stressed you once become the norm, but there is pressure, without doubt. Things happen quickly, and sometimes unexpectedly, but when you have a committed and able team with great competencies and skills, you know you’ve got the right resources and people to deal with anything that’s put in front of them.” I asked which main hospitals the Trust’s Estates team is responsible for maintaining. Nigel said: “The Royal group of hospitals, Belfast City Hospital, Musgrave Park Hospital, and the Mater Hospital, Knockbracken Hospital, and Muckamore Hospital.” The Trust’s estate ranges in age from around 1890 to modern-day. Nigel Keery explained: “In our old estate, we still have the world’s first air-conditioning system, at the Royal Victoria, while in the Victorian part, there is a steam engine still working, although not used. The architects for the Royal Victoria Hospital were William Henman and Thomas Cooper, the builders McLaughlin & Harvey, and the mechanical and electrical engineer Henry Lea. They won a competition to design the building, and the air- conditioning was installed because the architect decided he needed some engineering assistance, and brought in Henry Lea. The Royal Victoria was completed in 1903.”
One of two steam-driven fans that are part of the Royal Victoria Hospital Belfast’s plenum air-conditioning system.
Photos courtesy of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
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