Categories: rant
Date: 16 November 2008 13:45:20
My mother in law has been taken into hospital. We returned from yesterday evening's ceilidh to a series of messages on our answering machine. Then, mother in law was refusing to go to hospital, despite, as we were told, suffering chest and arm pains. This morning, she phoned (wakening my wife) to say that she was still feeling unwell. My wife was to phone NHS 24.
My wife took the bus down to her mum's, so that I could take our children (who are playing Mary and Joseph in the nativity play) to church. So now my wife is at the hospital with her mum. She has phoned to say that they are still waiting to be seen.
This is the same hospital as we visited on Friday. I've been resisting the urge to tell you that this hospital has a policy of 'discouraging patients ...'. I know, because I saw it on a notice board. The sentence goes on to say that they discourage patients from bringing their cars. I can report that they (the hospital) have succeeded in their aim, both generally and particularly. On this occasion, I have no choice. It is a Sunday. On Sundays, there are considerably fewer buses. It took us over two hours to get home on Friday. I simply don't know how long it would take to-day - longer, certainly ...
In pursuit of their policy, the hospital provides insufficient parking space. I am anticipating a nightmare as I try to find a place to park - I have suffered a panic attack trying to do so in the past.
What really annoys me is this (and I, as you probably know, am generally in favour of minimising car use). The NHS like to centralise resources. Over the years, they have closed small, friendly hospitals, in favour of monstrosities. It isn't surprising that in the vicinity of one of these big hospitals there could be a traffic problem. But passing the problem on to the patients and their visitors is plain cruel.
Update: My wife has phoned to say that her mother has been admitted. Which means, at least, that we should be able to collect my wife from the hospital without having to park. Thankfully ...