Mathew Kalapurayil Mundakal – Unsung Hero Awards

Nomination

Award Category:

Estates & Ancillary

Individual or Team Nomination?

Individual

Qualifying Qualities

In these challenging times, nominators were asked to show how the nominee had demonstrated the following qualities:

Exceptional work ethic - going above and beyond their job description, especially in the past 12 months.
Outstanding achievement/s in work or outside of the organisation where relevant.
Drive for innovation and proactive leadership in these challenging times.
High level of interpersonal skills, such as kindness, empathy, loyalty and thoughtfulness to staff and patients.
A resilience considering Covid to their role and to the health and wellbeing of their colleagues.

Nominators Answer

Nominee's story :

Mathew Kalapurayil Mundakal is highly regarded across the Trust and known by everyone as ‘Matthew’ for his ever-present smile and happy approach to life and his role. In a recent black and white photo compilation on twitter by medical director, John Knighton, Matthew was featured and received many positive comments from staff past and present with their memories of working with him, which can be summed up in the tweet below: Mathew is an absolute legend. He is always smiling and brightens up the day. No job is too much trouble and he is a demon when it comes to cleaning!! He’s a totally unsung hero.” Mathew splits his time between maintaining high levels of cleanliness and hygiene on our renal wards and in the afternoons, he joins the scrub team. It’s on the scrub team where the teams across the hospital really relied on Matthew and his colleagues, particularly during the winter months and throughout the pandemic. Volunteering to be redeployed to work with the scrub team to support clinical colleagues and meet the increasing numbers of deep cleans required across the hospital due to Covid, Mathew also went above and beyond and often worked additional hours late into the evening. During our pandemic response Mathew must have personally cleaned hundreds of rooms making sure they were safe and available quickly for the next patient. Throughout the pandemic when demands on staff were high, Mathew supported and helped train the new starters on the scrub team. His passion for his job and responsibilities shone through, and he clearly loved showing them the ropes and making sure they felt safe at all times. As a department and service, the team relies on experienced cleaners to help train and assist new colleagues. Mathew’s happy and approachable demeanour has made him a perfect fit for this role. Mathew is incredibly selfless, and while being concerned for his family back home in India as the delta variant took hold there, he continued to place himself at potential risk when cleaning many bed areas where there had been confirmed cases of Covid. Liam Casserly, cleaning manager said: “Mathew has taken the pandemic response in his stride. There were several occasions when the hospital had a huge number of tasks for the scrub team, but Mathew was always ready to respond cheerfully and accept any challenge that came his way. I’m looking forward to the day when Mathew can once again shake hands or comfort and encourage colleagues with a pat on the shoulder, which he would do enthusiastically before the pandemic and social distancing was introduced.” John Knighton added: “As one of the best known, and consistently kindest, faces anywhere in PHU (even with a mask!), we are incredibly fortunate to have Mathew working in our organisation. His positive ‘can do’ approach to his work and helping patients and staff is exceptional and fully exudes our Trust values. Matthew is a joy to have on our wards and a genuine unsung hero.”