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This building used to be the John Radcliffe Sports and
Social Club, today it is occupied by what used to be called the Occupational
Health Department, but has of course been given an Orwellian politically
correct name: "Centre for Occupational Health and Wellbeing". It
looks like it's had a lot more money spent on it than it used to get. I've
often said that the JRH was the last hospital in the NHS to have a social club;
this is not true. If you Google "hospital social clubs" you find
several dozen entries, mostly in London
and Yorkshire , but none in the Trust area of the JR.
Does this mean that the breakdown of workplace camaraderie I've talked about
before is not happening and I'm mistaken? No. However, I'm reposting an updated
edition of my article Last Night of the
JR Social Club as well as a few relevant links:
(Based on an article
originally posted on HPANWO Voice on the 23rd of March 2012 )
When I started out a Hospital Porter back in 198...
whatever, part of my orientation was the John Radcliffe Sports and Social Club.
Nowadays when you ask somebody on the wards about the Social Club most of them
will say: “What’s that?” When I started out all the big five hospitals in
Oxfordshire had social clubs, today none of them do except the JR... Well it
did; you see: tonight was the last night of the Social Club. Tomorrow, it
closes for good. And this is the end of an era and it’s extremely symbolic. Why
is that? What's changed? I think it’s because of the breakdown of community
spirit and camaraderie in NHS hospitals. More work is being done by fewer people
for less money. Everybody is so miserable and stressed out that there’s no time
to play and have fun anymore. You just do your job and get the hell out. Just
put in your time and then go home and collapse. I can’t remember when it all
went wrong; not the day, not the month, not even the year. There’s no one
single event that destroyed the soul of the hospital; it just crept up on us,
but by bit, over the years. It came along so slowly we didn’t even notice it.
But I look back now and I think: “How on Earth did it come to this? Why did we
let it happen?” I took these photos below for the same reason that I took
photos of the Headington Subway, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/rip-subway.html,
because they’re an important and exclusive historical record of something
precious that is now lost; something so fundamental, but so subtle, that it’s
hard even to name it. But everybody knows what it is and can feel it. For that
reason I’ve captured as many images of that place as I can; even the toilets
are worth preserving! Technically I’m barred from the JRSSC and have been since
my dismissal from the hospital, but I thought: “Fuck it! I’ll be damned if I’ll
miss the last night of the Social Club!” We had a fun but poignant evening. It
was good to see my Extremely Proud and Dignified Brother and Sister Porters
again. The stock was almost all gone and by closing time all but one of the
beer pumps had been draped by bar towels. The bar staff were serving “half
pints” of over a litre in coke glasses, but who cares; what are they going to
do about it? Close the place down?
See here for more
details: http://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/porters-awareness-day-sticker.html.
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