St Ives man Roy Allen has retired from his post in technical services at Hinchingbrooke Hospital after spending 41 years and 139 days in the NHS.

Roy started his working life at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, in Cambridge, from where he carried out work at other hospitals in the area. During this time he worked at the Huntingdon County, Primrose Lane Maternity and Papworth hospitals as well as other medical establishments.

When the new Hinchingbrooke Hospital opened in 1984, Roy came to commission all the new medical equipment and has been at the hospital since his retirement this month after working at Hinchingbrooke for 33 years.

Life as a medical engineer has never lost its appeal for Roy and he said: “You never know what’s going to happen when you arrive at work in the morning. You can have your day planned and then something comes along that blows those plans out of the window”.

Chief executive, Stephen Graves added: “People like Roy are the backbone of the NHS. It’s inspiring for us to see people who have given so much to the service, in Roy’s case his entire working life. Roy’s ‘can-do’ attitude and humour will be greatly missed by many people at Hinchingbrooke and we all join in wishing him a very long and happy retirement.”

The technical services team looks after 5,500 pieces of medical equipment, commissioning equipment, more than 1,000 pieces for the Treatment Centre, maintaining it and then decommissioning it at the end of its life.

The team also advises clinical departments on the equipment best suited to their needs and negotiates and manages maintenance contracts offering the correct level of cover for their needs.