Spotlight On …

Meuric Diogo
Clinical Engineering Technician

Tell us about your career history and how you came to work for us.

My name is Meuric Diogo, and I am currently working as a Clinical Engineering Technician for Synchronicity Care Ltd, at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT) since 2021.

I studied at the University of Sunderland, where I completed my BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in July 2015, and my MSc in Engineering Management in July 2017.  During my bachelor’s degree, I also managed to secure a job at British Telecom (BT) as a Telecommunications Engineer.  I left BT in July 2017 after I completed my Masters to pursue a career in the manufacturing industry at Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK Ltd where I worked till July 2021.  While I was working at Nissan, I got an exciting opportunity to work as a Clinical Engineering Technician at SCL.

Tell us about your role – what do you do?

As a Clinical Engineering Technician, my primary role is to ensure that all medical devices in the trust are working and safe for staff and patient use. My day-to-day role involves conducting planned preventative maintenance and repairs on a wide range of critical medical equipment such as infusion pumps, ventilators, anaesthetic machines, and incubators.

My other responsibilities include ordering and acceptance testing of new medical devices that are going to be used in the Trust, as well as maintaining an effective relationship with the end-users and equipment manufacturers to ensure that patient needs are being met.

What’s the most challenging part of your job?

The most challenging part of my job is maintaining effective communication with other functions to ensure that the medical devices are maintained to a high level of standard, and ensure we provide effective care and support to all of our patients.

We often encounter challenges since we are working with highly critical medical equipment used in our critical departments such as A&E, ITU, Theatres, and Neonatal Unit.  Sometimes we have to repair medical equipment that is in-use and connected to patients, which can be extremely demanding.

What’s the best part about your job?

The best part of my job is the satisfaction that comes from providing a crucial service to our end-users and patients, repairing and maintaining medical equipment that is used to ensure our patients get the most effective care and support at our Trust. This role also exposes me to regular opportunities when I can employ my problem-solving and technical skills, allowing me to continuously develop my engineering skills.