One hour with the NHS

...Mary Seacole Centre, Clapham

...   9.35 am  I show my nephew Timothy my painful, grazed, swollen elbow. ’See your doctor. It could be sepsis. It can kill. Go today.’     
...   9.42 am  I ring the surgery. 
‘Come before 10 am if you want an emergency appointment today.’      
...  9.55 am  I get to the reception. 
‘You may have to wait up to two hours.’    
...10.25 am  I see the doctor, who sends a prescription to the chemist electronically.  ‘Go straight to A & E if you feel feverish.’   
...10.45 am  I arrive at the chemist. 
’Your antibiotics are ready for collection.’

I live a short bus or tube ride from four teaching hospitals if I do need A & E: Guy’s to the north, St George’s to the south, King’s College to the east, St Thomas’ to the west.

...Clapham Family Practice

...'Mary Jane Grant was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1805. Her father was a Scottish soldier, and her mother a Jamaican. Mary learned her nursing skills from her mother, who kept a boarding house for invalid soldiers. Although technically 'free', being of mixed race, Mary and her family had few civil rights - they could not vote, hold public office or enter the professions. In 1836, Mary married Edwin Seacole but the marriage was short-lived as he died in 1844.

Seacole funded her own trip to the Crimea where she established the British Hotel near Balaclava to provide 'a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers'. She also visited the battlefield, sometimes under fire, to nurse the wounded, and became known as 'Mother Seacole'. Her reputation rivalled that of Florence Nightingale.'