This is a minor whinge, but I’m sat with nothing else to do and it’s something that bugs me.<\/p>\n
Ahead of my surgery<\/a>, I had a pre-op check. All very normal, so they can evaluate how fucked you are beforehand and what will be required to minimise risk before and after.<\/p>\n I look at the map<\/a> and enter at the main entrance of Zone A- note that this isn’t the hospital main entrance (any more?) which is now way over in Zone D. <\/p>\n I now note that A18, what I was after, is actually missing from the map, which is point number 1, but, logically, it must be nearby. So I continue in, follow the signs, and come to a dead end at A18 with a printed bit of A4 paper, with a photo of another building and “A18 has moved to the old swab area, next to the old A&E” (forgive meif this is innacurate, this is from memory, but you get the idea).<\/p>\n In what way is this useful to anyone who has never visited this part of the hospital before?<\/p>\n I stopped a passing member of staff. <\/p>\n Oh, yes, it’s moved. Go out of that entrance behind you, turn right, it’s very nearby, it’s a glass box that sticks out from the building.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Those were good, clear directions.<\/p>\n Why couldn’t that have been on the A4? Why are some people so bad at giving directions, and why, in particular, is the NHS so good at failing to update signage, or leave big gaps in it? This is the 4th or 5th time at New Cross I’ve just thought “OK, where now?”. I’m singling out New Cross here, but Heartlands, with miles of corridors, is also challenging at times, and the less we say of Good Hope the better. Some of this is the nature of hospitals of course, huge, sprawling sites that have organically grown and changed over time.<\/p>\n The key start is that people assume you know the landmarks they refer to. It’s not just the NHS, to be fair; I once had problems finding an ex-colleague’s house:<\/p>\n But it’s easy, you just go to Edgbaston Cricket Ground and turn [direction]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That’s all well, if you actually know where that place is. I didn’t, because I have no interest in it.<\/p>\n I’m fairly regularly asked directions to Walsall Wood Football club- we live near to it (sadly, when they choose to play their shit music over a PA). This situation would be like me saying “Yeah it’s easy, it’s just past that house where someone drove into the wall”. I know where that is, the person asking hasn’t a clue.<\/p>\n For directions to be useful, they have to define an unambiguous starting point, and have a clear direction. Unlike this post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is a minor whinge, but I’m sat with nothing else to do and it’s something that bugs me. Ahead of my surgery, I had a pre-op check. All very normal, so they can evaluate how fucked you are beforehand and what will be required to minimise risk before and after. I look at the … Continue reading Directionless<\/span>