Hurray for the NHS

Mum was no better this morning and very tired from being breathless and feverish for so many days. Our GP came and arranged for her to go to hospital for assessment. In Northumberland that means going to the nearly brand new, state of the art, accident and emergency hospital at Cramlington.

It's 30 miles from us so we were not keen, but had to accept it.

When we arrived I noted a large notice outside the main door that says PAY HERE. It's for the car parking but it was a bit off-putting. There was also a three sided shed where inpatients on wheelchairs and their relatives were puffing on the dreaded cigarettes.  All in all, not the greatest start.

Everything after that was just brilliant. We were dealt with by a succession of positive, kind, cheerful and skilled staff. The system runs like clockwork - or it did today. After about 15 mins in the waiting room, Mum was taken into triage where her vital signs were assessed. Then the radiographer whisked her off for a chest x ray. Then she had a drip of antibiotics put up - a big blast of a mega antibiotic they use for sepsis.

She was moved from triage to another bay and then to a ward when a bed became available. To her disappointment she is in a 4 bedder and not a single room. It is very noisy. Two of the others have TVs on and not on the same channel.

IN FACT - we heard the inauguration of President Trump and then the highlights and so on. The louder TV was by the bed of a women who was texting all the time. She kept the TV on when the visitors came, but no one watched it! Thank goodness Mum can turn her hearing aids to the loop setting and hear nothing if necessary!! We had to laugh.

Oh yes, she has pneumonia.

On my way out I took a quick picture of this striking sculpture in the main atrium. It is called A Mummuration of Starlings  and the sculptor is Juliet Gutch.

I'm at home where it seems awfully quiet, despite Bowlby howling. She does this every evening and can't hear it herself. She is fed and watered so the cause remains a mystery.