Michael Commane
A boy I know was in Crumlin Hospital for major surgery. I taught his father fadó fadó and some months back we linked up again so when his son was in hospital I visited him.
I’m not too familiar with Crumlin Hospital. It is some years since I have been there so I was depending on signage, firstly to get to the hospital and then to manage my way inside the building.
It was raining the evening of my visit. I was not going to pay for 30 minutes parking so I left my car, legally parked, on the side of the road. It was Sunday evening and it was easy to find a parking space. Nor was I involved in anti-social parking.
I have referred to the issue of hospital signage before in this column but the more that’s said and written about it the better as the situation is dire.
I parked my car less than a three-minute walk from the hospital yet I had to ask someone where the main entrance was.
Inside the hospital I had to ask three people for directions to a ward. One person I asked, who works in the hospital, had no trouble admitting that the signage was terrible but he immediately added that I was not to quote him. Isn’t that shocking? He knows that the signage is terrible – he admitted it to me. But he was so afraid that he was forced to tell me that he was not willing to express his opinion in public.
On that particular evening a second member of staff also agreed that the signage in the place is well below par.
Surely it’s a simple operation to put up large, legible signs, which are easy to read and follow. I’d volunteer to do it for them. But it’s more or less the same old story in every hospital in the country.
Having eventually arrived at the ward I found my man. When I arrived his parents were with him. We were all chatting away when I spotted a sandwich on a table. On the wrapping it said that it should be consumed within 90 minutes of purchase.
One look at the white bread, sparingly smeared with a butter-like substance and blobs of chicken on it made me ask how anyone could eat it, inside or outside the 90-minute limit. And that 90-minute limit sounds daft. What if the sandwich had been on a trolley for the previous 89 minutes?
I’d love to know how much the hospital authorities pay the supplier for these sandwiches. Is that the best we can do for our sick children?
When I was finding my way to the ward I passed the hospital shop. I passed giving it little attention because all my focus was on navigating to the correct ward. But in the few seconds passing the hospital shop I was struck by the amount of chocolate, crisps, fizzy drinks and general junk-food that seemed to be stocked in the outlet.
Only two weeks earlier I had been in the shop in St Vincent’s Hospital and I was gobsmacked by the junk-food they were selling. Exactly the same story as in the Children’s Hospital in Crumlin.
There’s something wrong somewhere. Is anyone going to do anything about it?
But on the scale of things signage is hardly a top priority at hospitals. Food probably is. I am conscious of the great work that is done in our hospitals where staff give of their skills and time to save lives and fix up so many other lives.
Thank you.
1 comment:
I thought from the way you said your parking was not anti-social that we were in for a further treat when you got back to it.
You should be writing thrillers but you'd need to introduce teasers only where there is a dramatic follow up.
:)
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