I had a stressful Wednesday. I was called to give evidence in person at an inquest, which was a surprise as my involvement in the patient’s care was peripheral. The court was tiny. We started very late, and had to wait for an hour in an unheated corridor between the door and the toilet.
All I could think about was every more useful thing I could be doing with this time. In my mind, my to do list is a pile of crisp bits of paper, each one with a task typed on it on an old fashioned typewriter, like the in-tray from a movie from the 1950s. This gets higher and higher, and then becomes an unruly mess, threatening to topple over and crush me. I had moved things around to be available all day, but could not move a webinar I was co-presenting in a 1 hour window at lunchtime. I asked to be released for this. After some discussion I was allowed to give my evidence first.
The Coroner’s court is supposed to be a fact-finding mission, rather than an adversarial or litiginous process, but this depends on whether there are lawyers present, and if so, what approach they choose. The questions were fair but challenging. It was a good experience, to have given evidence when I only played a minor part in the case. All healthcare professionals can expect to be involved in legal processes these days. We all find them very stressful.
Having given my evidence I was released, and had to find a space from where I could give my webinar. Every other court would have had a room or lobby, but not this one! I tried the atrium of a student college and was told I could not be there, even outside the security barriers, because of ‘safeguarding’. I crossed the bridge to Canary Wharf, and tried to find a quiet-ish space.
There are vast, comfortable, quiet, warm spaces, ideal places to sit on a laptop for a meeting or webinar in Canary Wharf. Every building has a lobby with innumerable empty sofas and chairs, guarded by a receptionist and several security guards. Of course these are not public spaces. They are not available to anyone. They are policed. They are exclusive. They are enclaves. I was told that I could not sit in one of the many seats in the KPMG foyer as I was not with KPMG, and it was against KPMG rules. I suggested that KPMG would neither know nor care. This was met with silence. I ended up in the foyer of 1 Canada Square which was not quiet, but whose background hum did not disrupt my presentation.
You can watch the webinar recording here: The Health Risks of Damp and Mould
Canary Wharf has changed a lot in the 20 years I’ve been in London. Once a bustling centre of business with cafes, restaurants and bars full at all times of the day and night during the week, during COVID-19 it was an eerie ghost town. It has a buzz to it again now, but it has never fully recovered. Architects and urban planners are asking interesting questions about its use of space, both public and private. London’s ‘public’ spaces, such as squares, parks and thoroughfares, are increasingly privately owned, which is fine as long as the public’s needs align with the corporations, but provides no protection if the corporation decides to wall off or police that space, as they may do on a whim.
The history of development of the docklands is fascinating and provides a stark but unsurprising example of the power of money to exclude and marginalise local communities. The Museum of London Docklands has a great exhibition including protest art from the 80s when the Docklands Community proposed a People’s Plan for regeneration. They were consistently and systematically excluded and ignored.
I travelled to the far North (of London) for Policy, Progress and Peas, an event hosted by by Viva! and Zac Polanski, deputy leader of the Green Party. There was great food, there were great people. It was great to be in a room of hopeful, compassionate people, invested in a positive future for London. I hope the ideas we submitted for accelerating London’s plant-powered future are well received by the Mayor and his team.
Since I’ll be away from work for 3 weeks and I’ve generated extra work through a winter COPD project, I’ve scheduled some extra clinics on Friday afternoons. It’s the only time when there are clinic rooms free. Present-me was not appreciative of past-me’s decision. I was nearly broken by the end of Friday. I hope future-me takes note.
I can’t think about the state of the world this week, but keep the people of Gaza close to my heart.
We had vegan haggis for Burns night. It was excellent.
drlj 