Of course I have taken taxis over the years. To and from termini with bags as I scurried here and there on work assignments but not normally in a social context.
Last night we got the dreaded call from the care home that Mrs O’s mother was being taken into A&E by ambulance. This was just before our normal retiring time. Poldark came to an abrupt end as we then prepared to go out rather than to bed.
Drink had been taken with our evening meal so a taxi was necessary.
Ever since I first visited Ipswich there has always been one firm that I can recall and to be fair, they arrived in minutes on a Bank Holiday Sunday night at chucking out time. Perversely, we got to A&E before the ambulance. That was all a tad surreal. I had expected the waiting area to be over full of revellers but no. It was a cross section of all ages from small children to aged adults. Only one hassled receptionist on duty though and it seemed strange to have to wait behind the yellow line before being able to ask of mother-in-law’s whereabouts. It seemed an age as the two previous queue families were processed but stay behind that yellow line we did.
It was almost a sense of deja vu as we entered the emergency admissions area as she was in the same bay that Alex went into.
After much to-ing and fro-ing with countless NHS people plugging in drips and monitors then X-rays it was a speedy gonzalez trip up and down a maze of corridors until she was housed in a ward for what remained of the night.
As we trotted to keep up with the technician (modern day porter) we passed numerous display cabinets full of art and I recalled setting one of these up last year for UCS but given the scale of this hospital, I doubt I would ever find it again.
Before we knew it it was another taxi home, that stopped outside my current display at MF Frames – another surreal experience – and bed at 0200. First class service from the taxi firm and the NHS but how doe people manage to pay for taxis? If the taxi fare is anything remotely proportional to the NHS service then on a pro rata basis based on time alone that was £1200 worth of attention not counting the paramedic and ambulance time, or indeed the caring aspect.
Not everyone can afford taxis but none of us can afford to lose the NHS.