NHS night cleaners

“I came to the UK in March 2020 and for a year and six months I worked in a warehouse, but it was very hard work, and it was not regular work. I was looking for a permanent job, so I applied for a cleaning job at the West Middlesex Hospital. At first, I started on the weekends and then after one year I got a full-time role cleaning this section of the hospital and since then I have been permanent.

“When I first started working nights, I lost weight because I wasn’t eating or sleeping properly. It’s important to exercise and eat nutritious food but when you’re tired, you just want to eat food that is not good for you. After three years, I have adjusted to the hours – although at the weekend, when it’s my days off, I still sometimes struggle to sleep at night because my body is so used to being awake.”

In the daytimes between shifts, Dan is studying for his English Level 1 exam.

“I decided night shifts were good for me because my English language is not the strongest. So when I’m working at night it means I can use the daytime to go to English school and learn English.

“Eventually, I want to go into health and social care. I like building relationships with people and although I enjoy this job, I would love to have a purpose caring for people. If I can pass my social and healthcare exams, and continue working towards helping people, then I can look forward to a bright future.”

“Morning”, Mihaela says to the porters at the end of the corridors. They’re waiting to be called to transfer the next person from the Accident and Emergency (A&E) department onto the ward. It’s 4am and Mihaela, is ready to clean the room in preparation for the next patient.

“The most important thing for working on the A&E department is to have eyes in the back of your head and to be alert at all times. For example, if the porters are moving a bed from a room, then you need to be right behind them and ready to clean before the next patient enters. You have to be ready at any time of the night!”

It’s a constant cycle of patients coming through the doors. The hospital receives patients from the London boroughs of Hounslow, Richmond upon Thames and Ealing, and the A&E department is consistently busy. Every night brings a level of urgency and care, the success of which rests on the foundations of a clean hospital.

“In A&E, I have to clean everywhere. I pull out all of the beds on the ward, clean behind them, behind all of the chairs, dust everything visible, and empty all of the bins. I often make cups of tea for the patients too, because my colleagues will often be too busy.

“I love this job, it involves everything. Even if it’s not my job I still help others. It doesn’t matter who you are, we help each other because it’s the emergency department and we always work as a team.”

Up and down, round and round, Siba moves through the quiet main foyer of the hospital, guiding the cleaning machine along a 50-metre stretch of tiled floor. The space is still and empty at night and Siba is making sure the floors are spotless and polished before the hospital springs back to life in the morning.

“I work in a public area, and I like the night shifts because it’s quiet. Nobody disturbs me, which is better for me. I come in and start my shift by filling up the machine with water and chemicals, I put wet floor signs out and then start cleaning the main entrance to the hospital. There are not many challenges to this job once you’ve learnt what you’re doing, but it’s the consistency which is key to doing the job properly.”

Siba explains that the tasks the night shift workers are given often go unnoticed, except to the supervisor on shift. The hospital is deadly silent and few patients enter the foyer during these hours.

“It’s the daytime when the public and hospital workers witness how the hospital is cleaned. But I don’t mind because working the night shift allows me to just get on with the job and I like it that way. As long as I know I'm doing the job properly and my supervisor is happy, then I'm happy.”

The machine Siba uses is heavy, and the steps he covers cleaning the main foyer alone mean that his job is very active.

“In Nepal I was working as a farmer, farming rice and popcorn, and then I lived in Saudi Arabia for five years working in a hotel. So everything I’ve ever done has been on my feet and working hard.”

For Siba, the night shift have been good for his routine. It allows his partner to sometimes work during the days, while he looks after their three children. It also means he can take better care of his mum and take her to the GP or hospital when needed.

“My family does not disturb me when I come home in the mornings. At 3.30pm I wake up and then I spend some time with my wife and children. We usually have around three to four hours together before I have to come back to work. We go to the park after school and eat dinner together. On my days off I usually chill out. My sleeping pattern pretty much stays the same though. I usually go to bed at 8pm but I wake up again at 3am and I look at my phone until the morning when everyone wakes up. I don’t want to disturb my family as they are all sleeping.”

“We help each other out,” Prince says, as one of the nurses acknowledges him while he walks through the ward he’s been assigned to clean.

“Everyone works hard in this hospital. People listen when you want to tell them something. We are all working for one purpose and if I don't clean they can not do their job. We want to save lives and help people.”

Prince has worked in the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital since 2023. Before that, he worked nights in a factory in North London.

“I came to the UK with my wife. She came here to study for a master’s degree in teaching. She’s a teacher back in Ghana. She started suggesting I should come over, so I did. I was very lucky though, I had some friends working at the hospital and they managed to get me a job. I worked hard and they said they had to choose one person out of five and they chose me for the contract. The boss told me that I do my job very well and I also present myself well which was nice to hear. I’m very proud of being here and proud to be a key worker.”

Like many who work night shifts, Prince often finds it difficult to get sufficient rest during the working week. But with his three children living in Ghana and his wife studying, he manages to take care of himself and get lots of rest on the weekends.

“On my days off I enjoy eating with my friends in Streatham. It’s the closest to authentic Ghanaian food I can find here in London. After that I'll go home and sleep because this job requires a lot of sleep. I’ll also do tasks around the home and cook myself some food for the week. It means I'm always prepared.”

For Prince, working on a ward that requires a lot of attention is tiring. It’s being organised and having a routine that makes this job slightly easier.

“The phlebotomy ward [where blood samples are taken and tested] is very different because of the type of work that goes on here. It has to be really carefully cleaned and you have to really focus. All of the chairs and all of the beds have to be moved, then brushed, mopped and put back. Fortunately, I can focus because there’s nobody here throughout the night so it means I get the job done and my boss is happy.”

By midnight A&E is buzzing with people. Calls echo through staff radios: “…bed 10, 15, and 16. Infection clean needed.” Simon is the cleaner on call.

“I came to the UK from Africa in 2019 and started working at the hospital, first in ICU [Intensive Care Unit] and then I transferred to A&E. It can get so busy during the nights and can be tough as the general public can be disrespectful to cleaners because they think we are the lowest rated job and therefore not important. Every job is important though.

If you took the human body as an example, the head would not say the hand was not important, or the eyes would not say the nose is not important. They are all there to play specific roles that are very important, like every job in the hospital. I don’t degrade myself because of other peoples’ perceptions though. It’s a demanding job and tiring as you’re out of sync with the rest of the world and your family.”

Simon spends his one day off catching up on the sleep he’s missed during the working week, and spending time with his children.

“My wife is a teacher so she often leaves with my daughter in the mornings when she goes to school. If I leave work early then I will sometimes catch my son [in the morning]... I don't see them from Monday to Friday. I only get to spend time with them on the weekend and most of the time I’m working overtime on Sunday, so that only leaves me with Saturday to catch up with them and see what they’ve been up to over the week.”

It’s one in the morning, and most of the hospital is asleep. In the Ambulatory Emergency Care section, night shift supervisor Saihou directs his team in response to the requests of doctors.

“It’s tough being a supervisor, you’re constantly on your feet helping out the team all over the hospital. I have 15 members of staff to direct, responding to a mixture of various calls throughout the night.”

There’s a real sense of teamwork in the Chelsea and Westminster hospital and Saihou feels a level of respect from every single member of staff that he encounters, both in person and over the radio.

“As a supervisor, I do not see myself as bigger than my staff. We’re all the same level and I get involved. If anybody has an issue, I'm always there with open arms and I respect them and will always help.”

This city hospital carries a rich history. Renowned for its high standards of care and with 430 beds, the hospital relies on dedicated professionals like Saihou to uphold excellence in every corner, every day.

“I don’t bring [work] troubles home, and I don't bring my troubles to work. I like to be positive in the role to keep my team feeling positive. Sometimes this role can be very frustrating if you misunderstand patients. You have to be calm and patient every day and avoid any confrontation.”

After lots of different jobs over the years, Saihou is immensely proud of working within the hospital.

“I feel responsible for people. Looking after anybody, doing the little things for them makes me satisfied in life. To see someone being taken care of properly, it makes me happy and it feels rewarding. It’s essential to be a key worker.”

It’s that in-between time, late at night or early in the morning, depending on how you look at it. Christina moves through the quiet corridors, greeted with a soft “morning” by everyone she passes.

“I work across all the wards. Wherever there needs to be a cleaner. I see a lot of nurses and patients over the whole hospital, and it feels like there’s a community. I get to talk to all different types of people during my shifts.”

Like much of the NHS, this hospital is enriched with a range of vibrant cultures. From ward to ward there are people working here from all over the world. People who came to the UK and wanted to help others.

“It feels good to be a key worker. The nurses are always friendly on the wards, everybody is really friendly in this workplace. The pandemic was a hard time. I was doing nights then, and it was intense. But people in the rest of society acknowledged that we worked really hard over that period and it did feel good, satisfying.”  

Before this role, Christina worked night shifts in a nut factory. Her husband who is also a cleaner at the hospital got her an interview.

“He usually cleans the main entrance of the hospital and so we often travel home together, eat breakfast together and go to sleep at the same time. It works well actually because we are on the same schedule. The problem is though we struggle to see our two children. Sometimes I don’t see them all week because when I get home my daughter is sleeping, she then wakes up when I go to bed and then she doesn’t finish work until 11pm, so we often miss each other.”

It’s 6am and the cleaning staff have been labouring all night to ensure every section of the hospital is clean for the new day. Tome is one of the cleaners who has been working all over the hospital doing rapid response calls.

“One of my main jobs in the hospital is rapid response and infections. They call me any time and I come straight away with my steam cleaner. I have to wear goggles and gloves because you are dealing with potentially highly infectious areas. I have to make sure all the rooms are carefully steamed, from the radiators to the door handles.”

This is one of the many important tasks that the cleaners work through, day and night. Tome moves around the different wards ensuring each individual room that could have been contaminated, will be safe for the next person who needs it.

“I work full time here, mostly 14-hour shifts. I’ve been working here since 2013, so one of the longest of all the cleaning staff. Growing up in Goa, my parents worked hard, and they put that into us. I have only once ever taken some time off, during Covid when I got really sick. But apart from that I’m very reliable and I am respected.”

For Tome, spending the nights at work means he feels safe and content in his routine.

“On the weekends I will usually go and do some shopping where I live in Wembley. Sometimes I go and watch a movie or me and my children will go out for food. I don’t have lots of friends in London.

Another two to three years and I will go back to my country, Goa. My wife still works there in garments. She has six to seven years left before retirement, and then we’ll live happily.”

As dawn creeps in, there’s a sleepy atmosphere that floats through the air. The morning is fast approaching, and the majority of doctors and nurses are starting to arrive for their shifts. The hospital is both the quietest and cleanest it’ll be for in the next 24 hours.

The cafe shutters creep open as the first rays of sunlight spill through the tall windows. Outside, a cold mist lingers as the night cleaners brace themselves to head upstream into the London rush hour. In 12 hours, they’ll return – the bins full, the wards busy – prepared to begin all over again.