We arrived at Manchester airport on a cold windy afternoon after a flight from Abu Dhabi. We had booked a hire car to drive the 3 hours to Lesley's mother's place in Stepps outside Glasgow. To get to the hire car park at Manchester Airport required standing in 40 knot, 5 degree winds at an open bus-stop for 20 minutes for a bus to take us to the hire car park. Most of our cold weather clothing was stored in Glasgow. This is where I think my chest infection started.
A 3 day trip to London to see friends a few days later did not help. By the time I arrived back in Glasgow, Lesley was phoning the NHS helpline as I was short of breath.
That night I was on oxygen at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, the hospital that Lesley did her nursing training in many years ago. The chest infection was bad but the hospital was concerned I might have developed an embolism from the long plane flights. All treatment was free for Australians due to some reciprocal arrangements with Medicare in OZ. I did not even show my passport or drivers licence. I think my accent was enough to convince them I was Australian.
The tea lady came around and asked if I would like a cup of tea. Although I usually prefer to drink coffee I ordered a white tea and one sugar. For the next 5 days the tea lady would offer me a cup of tea 3 or 4 times a day and I had my white tea and sugar except for the second night when the tea lady informed me she was out of sugar. I was craving coffee and had Lesley bring up a cup of coffee when she visited me. On the last day, the tea lady asked if I would like a cup of tea or would I prefer coffee? "Coffee", I enquired, "I didn't think you had coffee!". "Yes" she replied, "We always have coffee, hot chocolate and Horlicks!!!!!". I now know that being offered a cup of tea may also mean coffee as well.
The food was the worst food I have ever tasted. The soup hung off the spoon like snot. The rice was often under-cooked. NHS hospitals have a budget of under 3 pounds a day to buy, prepare and deliver food to patients. The food is "Cook-Chill" and prepared in Wales and reheated just before it is served. There is a campaign in Britain to improve hospital food.
Driving back to Stepps we were subjected to Road Rage. I had cut into a turning lane but had heaps of room. The car behind then passed me and cut in in front of us and wound down his passenger window to spray a bottle of coke over our hire car. Unfortunately for him, he shook the bottle too much and most of the Coke-Cola went over his lap and into his car. We put on the wipers and proceeded to Stepps none the worst for wear.
Glasgow Royal Infirmary is a training hospital for doctors and nurses and I often had a consultant, registrar and half a dozen medical students visiting me each morning. One particular day I was asked if it was OK to have a student do a full examination of me. This took 45 minutes of very thorough questions, pokes, prodding and stretching. The nursing staff were all over-worked. I didn't have a shower until day 3 when Lesley helped me as she could no longer stand the stench. The standard working hours in GRI are 42 and half hours per week and they have to agree to work up to 60 hours per week when they are employed. 12 hour shifts are the norm and his does not result in overtime unless they have already worked over 42 and 1/2 hours that week. One of the nurses worked the night shift then found his replacement the next morning was sick. He then worked a double shift, 24 hours straight and no overtime. The pay levels appeared to be 1/2 to 2/3 of the average Australian Nursing wage. The average age of the nurses appeared to be a lot less than it is in our health system. No wonder a number of the nurses were quizzing me about migrating to Australia.
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| Me after my discharge from Glasgow Royal Infirmary. I didn't shave for my whole admission and decided to wait for my Turkish barber when I returned to Marmaris.... |
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