Uch!

 

I was in London on Monday making a video for HPANWO TV, see: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2025/07/awake-and-aware-conference-2025.html, and happened to walk past the University College Hospital. This was originally founded in 1834, but the old buildings have been replaced by a typical new PFI pile on the corner of Gower Street and Euston Road. It is a tall and compact building without any space between the walls and pavements as you'd expect in crowded London. I never went to the main entrance which is on the north facade, but I decided to go in and have a look at the emergency department which is behind a surprisingly small door on the east side. As I walked up the entrance ramp I saw a pregnant woman who looked like she was in labour. At the time I wasn't sure if the UCH had maternity services; as it happens, it doesn't. This is unusual because maternity tends to be attached to general hospitals. I would have warned her and her husband if I'd known. Inside the emergency department I faced another surprise; it was very small, not much bigger than a GP's surgery waiting room. There were some rows of seats, only about thirty, and lots of people were sitting on the floor. It was very overcrowded and people who couldn't find space to sit were standing precariously against the wall. There was a reception desk behind a sheet of armoured glass and a door to minor side where a grim-looking security guard in a covid mask sat. The waiting room itself was totally sealed off from the rest of the hospital. I heard a voice on a loudspeaker say: "Could we have a porter to cubicle five with a wheelchair please." I looked over and saw a row of windows behind which was a wheelchair stack. Sure enough a porter appeared. He used a key to unlock the wheelchair; it was connected to the stack by a chain, like some supermarket trolleys. Why? Do people steal them? (Actually we did have a few go missing at the John Radcliffe and I found one in a pub. That's an amusing story I will relate another time. However, we never felt any cause to chain them together.) I wanted to salute the porter, which was the main reason for me entering the hospital, but my brother was behind the reinforced plate glass screen and so would never have heard me call to him. See here for the hospital's official site: https://www.uclh.nhs.uk/our-services/our-hospitals/university-college-hospital. This hospital's A&E was totally different to the one at the JR. It is clearly built with security as its top priority. Maybe that's a sign of the times we live in. The waiting room is far too small and the atmosphere inside it was tense. God knows what it's like late on a Friday night! I will look at the main entrance and report on it when I can, but I'm willing to bet it will be very different to the emergency entrance; large, grand, intimidating and pretentious.