16 March 2022

To mark Healthcare Science Week, Adam Murphy tells us more about his role as a senior medical electronics technician

A man with brown hair and a beard, wearing a blue shirt.

Hi, my name is Adam Murphy and I work as a senior medical electronics technician at Hexham General Hospital. I came into this role through an apprenticeship in medical electronics in 2008 and have been a fully qualified technician since 2012.

Within the medical engineering department, we are responsible for servicing, repairing and maintaining medical equipment that is used on patients – this can be anything from blood pressure monitors to anaesthetic machines. When most people think of roles within the NHS, medical engineering isn’t often one that comes to mind, however it’s a really important role which contributes to quality patient care as we ensure that our clinicians have equipment that is calibrated correctly to help diagnose and treat patients.

Working in medical electronics is very varied but it doesn’t come without its challenges. As Covid restrictions have been easing the departments within our hospitals have been getting busier so we have to find that right balance to collect equipment for routine servicing, without it impacting the clinical need of patients and ward staff.

At Northumbria we are always striving to innovate and improve things for our staff and patients and one of the main projects the medical electronics team has been involved in is the standardisation of blood pressure cuffs. At Hexham General Hospital, we have a variety of blood pressure monitors and for busy clinical staff, finding a specific cuff for a particular machine can, at times, be challenging. To help with this, we have standardised the cuffs so that any cuff will work on any blood pressure monitor and patients are now allocated their own cuff which helps to save time for our ward staff and also has cost saving benefits to the trust.

I really enjoy my job for the variety it comes with. Interacting with ward staff and problem solving, sometimes in high pressure scenarios, such as in theatres during an operation makes the role an exciting one and no two days are ever the same.

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