Prior to his upcoming retirement next month, Craig Bibby, who has now worked for University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust for 50 years, reflects on his career and reminisces about some of the highlights.
“I don’t think there’s many people who can say they’ve been 50 years with the same employer. I’ve had a variety of roles, there’s always been something different to do. I think it is credit to the NHS that it shows that people coming into it, there are opportunities for people if they want them … I think the NHS has always been very good at that.”
Craig Bibby is a familiar face to many at University Hospitals Plymouth. Despite leaving school at 16 with “very limited qualifications”, he’s worked in a multitude of roles in his half a century career. From starting out with the post room at Greenbank and Freedom Fields hospitals in 1975, to becoming a porter, then working as an Operating Department Assistant (as it was in 1980) at Devonport hospital, to being involved in commissioning of the theatres at Derriford Hospital in 1981.
“When we first walked through the front door, probably about six months before it opened, we wondered what we were going to do with all the space … The place felt huge, and that was only phase one of it having been built.
Believe it or not, when Derriford first opened, there were eight theatres on Level 4, but we only used three of them to start with. We did general surgery, emergency surgery and plastic surgery (when it moved up from the Royal Naval Hospital). That was all the service that was required at the time. Now there’s 35 theatres.”
After subsequently undertaking training to become a registered nurse in 1990, it was at Derriford Hospital that Craig got involved in the training of new staff in theatres, doing an Adult Education teaching course, as well as training nurses on the post-registration theatre course. In 2002 he became the Trust’s Risk Manager and has been in his current role as Medical Devices Strategic Investment Manager for the past 15 years.
“I’ve enjoyed my current role – mainly having the autonomy to do it and develop it. It had been rather ad-hoc until I first came into post in 2010, and a lot of clinicians felt that there needed to be something better. So, it was good to be proactive and put the replacement programme in place.
Medical technology has moved on rapidly in the last 15 years, which has increased demand for these better, more efficient medical devices which ultimately improve patient outcomes. Unlike when I worked in theatres, most of the medical devices these days now have a computer in, which unfortunately shortens the length of life of the device, and creates financial pressures. It’s always a balancing act between technological development. However, the Trust has always worked really hard to give us what it can.
A lot of the equipment has changed massively since I first started. I did once witness an anaesthetic given with ether. A lot of the machines were just mechanical. Patient ventilators were just driven by the gas of the anaesthetic machine, today it’s full of computers that can do all sorts of things, whereas the old ones were just a bellows that used to inflate the patient’s lungs. Obviously, these days the equipment is safer, I wouldn’t necessarily say easier to use but they’ve got lots of additional functions that improve the patient’s outcomes which is the important bit.
I think one of the areas that grew massively is ultrasound. When I first started working in clinical areas, ultrasound was only being used in obstetrics, but the changes there have been massive in terms of the things they can look at and do, overlaying things with CT scans and things like that. It’s impressive stuff. And of course, now we have robotic surgery and the introduction of AI in healthcare.
I worked in theatres during the introduction of laparoscopic (keyhole) surgery at the Trust in the early eighties, and now it’s the norm. Things are always progressing. And I don’t remember a time when there hasn’t been any building work going on, in all the time I’ve been here. It’s constant change.”
When asked about the most memorable part of his time at UHP, Craig said that it has been the people.
“When I was in the infancy of my career there were people who had spent all their lives working in healthcare as well, and who you learned from. People are always really keen to share their knowledge and that’s so important for the newer people coming through. And I think now that I’m at the end of my career, I feel I have done that myself, as I’ve always had an interest in teaching others and developing people. It’s so important for the future.
I think I’ve done my bit now, but I will miss the people”.
We’d like to wish Craig all the best in his retirement and thank him for being such an inspirational colleague to us all. Watch a video of Craig recounting his career at UHP:
