Sidney introduced himself to me early in my career as a hospital porter. He was a polite and deferential middle-aged man. He told me that he had been working at the Brook Hospital for 15 years, so if there was anything that I needed to know, he would be able to fill me in. Slightly […]
Hospital porter Part 6: How to cheat at cards
Looking back, my strategy to get into medical school was naive. I would probably have done better if I had engaged the skills that underpinned my flair for cheating at cards. Second time around I applied to five medical schools whose prospectuses seemed to convey liberal social attitudes. This included two London medical schools, both […]
Hospital Porter Part 5: Dr Robert
By Catherine Robinson on 18th August 2021 in 1970s, Hospitals, Medical School, Music, Social Mobility
My school reports chart uneven academic progress. I lurched between failure and success, often scraping by. I loved science and read about it for fun. During one half-term holiday when I was 13 I read the whole GCE O-level curriculum for physics in the public library. This had a positive impact on my performance for […]
Hospital porter Part 4: A fit-up
I have often attended courts as a psychiatrist. My experience of the justice system, criminal and civil, has ranged from matters trivial to grave. As a student, I was a plaintiff in a case in the small claims court. I was awarded the value of the faulty goods plus costs. At the other end of […]
Hospital porter Part 3: A suburban assassination
On Friday, 24th January 1975, I got home from the late shift at about half past ten. It was too late to go out, so I made a sandwich and settled down in front of the television to watch the late film. About ten minutes later, the door bell rang. It was Bruce Kemble. Bruce […]
Hospital porter Part 2: Every comrade’s dream
©Steve Hammond My girlfriend, who was away studying at York University most of the time, was very cross that I had joined the Workers Revolutionary Party. She was left-wing but she saw Trotskyist groups as no different to the religious cults that pestered young people at the time, such as the Moonies and the Children […]
Hospital porter Part 1: Balancing on two wheels
Bloomsbury, 1987 I attended my last British Medical Association conference as a junior doctors’ representative one sunny Saturday. I had finished long years of postgraduate training and I had applied for a post as consultant psychiatrist in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (I did not get the job). The conference concerned a document called “Hospital Medical Staffing: Achieving a […]
Malcolm McLaren blanked me Part 2
For the benefit of younger readers, I must tie off some loose ends from part 1. Glen Matlock was the original bassist and main songwriter for the Sex Pistols. He was said to have been sacked for “liking the Beatles”. A talented man, he has had a successful career over the last 45 years, despite […]
Malcolm McLaren blanked me Part 1
“Jumbo” Edwards made me sit with Steve Hammond in French. This was meant to stop us disrupting the class. It did not work, but we discovered that we were both guitarists. Not long after, we started our first band and a little while after that I failed O-level French. By the time I started medical […]
“I’ve had such a curious dream” said Alice
On Monday, I was presented with an award by Alistair Campbell, who himself was given an award in the same ceremony. As it was all over my Twitter feed for a few hours (and has attracted some light trolling), I might as well acknowledge it. At present, there is a banner photo at the top […]