A DEGREE double is being celebrated by Inverclyde Royal Hospital’s estates team.

Stuart McCready, estates officer, completed an honours course in building services engineering, achieving a first, while his colleague Brian Droy, technical officer, passed in building surveying.

Both were supported to complete their qualifications through a bursary programme, which allows staff within the NHS to learn and upskill with courses relevant to their field of work.

Stuart, from Gourock, said: “It was a lot of work, between that, my job and family life.

"I maybe didn’t fully realise just how much it would take at the time, but I think you’ve got to get as much out of these things by going all in.

"There is a real team spirit here, so many of the team are local, they all just care a lot as it’s their local hospital.

"We were all born here, or in and around this area, and we have all had circumstances where the hospital has played a part in our lives outside of work, so it’s important to us.

Stuart has been in his current hospital role for around three years.

He said: “I have been very lucky. I’ve been here for 12 years and for seven of those I have been at college or university to some description.

“I put a lot of work into getting my degree, and was given so much support to be able to do that."

Colleague Brian started his four year course before joining the IRH team.

He said: “I jumped at the chance, it’s an amazing opportunity where the NHS essentially pays and enables me to do this.

“The first year was at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary before I moved here to the IRH.

"The team have been so supportive, our manager made it very clear that this was important and that I should take the time to achieve it, it was very supportive."

Ross Campbell, estates site manager at the IRH, said: “On behalf of the entire team I would like to say a huge congratulations to both Stuart and Brian.

“From the very start of their courses, they have shown an incredible level of dedication and to be able to achieve a degree and a first class honours degree while managing their work and home life balance is a terrific achievement."