Two hospital workers from Upminster and Ilford who have spent 92 years between them looking after NHS patients have been recognised for their service.

Healthcare assistants Gayleen Harry and Geeta Bhojraz were given long service certificates at the London Health Care Support Worker Awards for their work since 1978.

Gayleen, a 64-year-old from Ilford, started in the old Dagenham Hospital when she was just 18. She now works in the outpatients department at King George Hospital in Goodmayes.

“You do get a lot of thanks from patients,” Gayleen said. “They remember you and that is a reward itself.

“I had a patient I didn’t recognise that came back whose daughter said her dad wanted to thank me for looking after him during Covid.”

Her colleague Geeta, 65, who lives in Upminster, came to Britain from Mauritius when she was 19.

She now works in Queen’s Hospital's Amber B ward in Romford.

She said: “Sometimes you see former patients in shops who come up and say ‘thank you’. This job is so rewarding — you make a difference to people’s lives.” 

The hospitals are run by Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT), which marked Nursing Support Workers’ Day on Saturday, November 23.