13 January 2017 | Sas Soubhi
Earlier this year I had the misfortune of spending 5 days in an NHS hospital, sampling the true post Brexit magnificence of British cultural diversity. ,,don’t worry there will be a marketing relevance near the end!
Having had an emergency gall bladder operation at a leading West London hospital I was enthralled by the individuals that looked after me and nursed me back to health. This blog is a tribute to their hard work endless energy and efforts culminating in ceaseless devotion to their duty of care.
Based on a straw and wholly inaccurate statistical poll of 10 patients I would say I make the model patient. I work on the premise that if you are nice to people that they will return the compliment and in an hospital situation where border controls are relaxed this is a critical factor for self-preservation. Without blowing my own trumpet though I represent merely 20% of the interviewees. I told you the stats would be dodgy!
Mr Whitton a self-proclaimed Brexiteer (who was having his doubts) and coincidentally lived half a mile from me was wholly appreciative of the service on offer from the attentive staff and gave me a good run for my money in the “best bloke on the ward award”.
At the other end of the spectrum was a gentleman from Hounslow who had spent the entire evening vomiting. This was despite numerous comments from the night nurse requesting him not to use too much of his pain killer medication as the aftermath bore testimony to.
Staying with the theme of diversity though…
A nurse who lived in Feltham gave me a whistle stop tour of her national cuisine (Burma) straddling the space between Indian and Thai with emphasis on ginger and garlic rather than chilli. Informative stuff.
Another nurse from Vauxhall, was quick to extol the virtues of his national footie team having recently been crowned kings of Europe albeit even he acknowledged they were lucky in the earlier rounds. Luck that evened itself out when Ronaldo got injured in the 20th minute, following an altercation with some form of flying insect!
A doctor who lived in Twickenham and a porter from Feltham both came from the same town at the foothills of the Himalayas (Nepal) and had met at the hospital… incredible coincidence.
The list goes on and being exposed to this range of diverse culture in such a short space of time really made me feel proud to live amongst such a wonderfully eclectic mix of people and highlighted to me at any rate how truly unique Britain is in this respect and if humanity is to survive truly represents the future.
As the song says we are close to being “one nation under a groove”. Let’s hope to God that neither Brexit nor mindless terrorism doesn’t dismantle this future vision.
Ok so what had this got to do with marketing…
Well a post-operative anaesthetist from Richmond via the Philippines asked me to fill out a short feedback forms on the Anaesthetic team. Surely the fact that I am alive would warrant top scores all round. Timing wasn’t great but hospital KPI’s needed to be adhered to and every patient is a statistical source, so I started to provide some answers through the murky feeling of grog. At one juncture, I remembered that the chief anaesthetist from Battersea via Nigeria, whilst administering the chemical cosh asked me where I was going on holiday. I remember replying North Cyprus, which is where I’m from. He then proceeded to rattle on about how wonderful a holiday he had in Bodrum, Turkey the year before and how he planned to go back again. At which point I was away with the fairies and entered the requisite “dream like state”.
I felt this experience alone warranted an extra point, especially as it demonstrated a strong bedside manner. After all diversity, only works when people are able to listen and, in this scenario, yours truly was the ultimate captive audience, immersed in a sea of both cultural and chemically induced mind-expanding miscellany!
