Lanesborough House, the historic St George’s building at Hyde Park Corner, closed suddenly in 1980 when its state of disrepair became a danger to the public. The new hospital was not yet finished, so the consultants had to temporarily occupy Victorian wards in Tooting that were awaiting demolition. I did my surgical house job in […]
Archive | Hospitals
Psychiatric Epiphany part 2: Formerly Surrey County Asylum
By Catherine Robinson on 17th January 2022 in 1970s, Hospitals, Medical School, Mental Health, Psychiatry
My wife has a habit of forgetting to tell me things. When she was at university, she neglected to tell me that her parents would be moving house before she came home for the holidays and I only found out by accident. She denies that this was an attempt to dump me and says she […]
Freedom for Tooting Part 2: Desmond’s Hip City
By Catherine Robinson on 31st December 2021 in 1970s, Diversity, Hospitals, Medical School, Medical Values
At the start of the course, most of the medical students either lived in University Halls of Residence or, like me, with their parents. Over time, people drifted into shared flats clustered around the course of the Northern tube line through South West London. I had had enough of living at home, but I knew […]
The Northern Line Part 1. The Spider Club
By Catherine Robinson on 1st November 2021 in 1975, Alcohol, Class, Hospitals, Junior Doctors, Medical School, Medical Values, Medicine, Social Mobility
Between 1733 and 1980, St George’s Hospital and its medical school were located at Hyde Park Corner, one of the best sites in Belgravia. The building was grand but neglected. In 1980, just before I sat medical school finals, we were allocated our pre-registration house jobs. I was not looking forward to working as a […]
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 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 […]