Hospitality

Sunday afternoon in the Chancellor Wing of St James's Hospital, Leeds.


Lots and lots of visitors arriving, some having travelled from afar, to see their loved ones. What could be more welcoming than a nice cup of tea?



Here's the cafe:

Oh dear, never mind. At least there's a drinks machine:

Actually, there are two. Both broken.

Never mind, let's just take the elderly visitors up the three floors to the ward, then, shall we?

Here's the lift:

Now to be fair, the other lift was working: it was just very, very full of people trying to get to the wards full of elderly people on the third floor.

Now this isn't Bogglesville Cottage Hospital (for if that had ever existed, they'd probably have closed it years ago, in fact) - it's St James's, which is one of the largest teaching hospitals in the North.

Has nobody worked out that for the patients to get better they need to be kept in a positive frame of mind? For the patients to be positive they need to have visitors: and the visitors need to be positive and such things as a welcoming cafe and a lift that works really, really help.

When I was younger I wanted to save the world. Now I'd settle for just saving the NHS. Or even making it a bit better.