Health and Safety

When I arrived at the hospital on the K4 bus yesterday, just as I had stepped (in my pathetic way) off the bus, the driver banged on the glass and beckoned me back, as the dear old lady behind me had fallen over.

He, as a bus driver, knows that Health and Safety does not allow him to pick her up by himself. There always has to be 2 people to pick up someone who has fallen over, in case of injury to the picker upper.

So I helped to pick her up.

Then, much like the blind leading the blind, I helped her (with her crutch) get to a seat outside the hospital, having established that she was diabetic. She was very shaken , poor thing.

So I left her on a bench and limped (or walked like an idiot , as we have now established) to the hospital entrance.

In this enormous hospital in The Royal Borough Of Kingston, there are Welcome Ladies. They have sashes that say "Welcome" and they tell you where to go and so on.

So I told the Welcome Lady about the poor old duck, and said she needed a wheelchair to get her to the hospital. Due to Health and Safety Regs, the Welcome Lady could not push the wheelchair. Neither, apparently , could I.

If I pushed her, and a bus or taxi or car or even Godzilla ploughed into her, it would be my fault. So we had to wait for a porter. I had to go , seeing as I had my physio appointment, so I hope the poor old duck is not still sitting on a bench waiting for a porter.

I know this whole Health and Safety thing is a bit crazy, and they do go overboard, but it is not a bad thing.

You can either have no Health and Safety, or the total overboard Health and Safety they have here.

Is better to go overboard.

Annoying as some of the Health and Safety things are , and as pathetically funny and amusing and sometimes even tragic as they may seem...believe me, it is better.

Think of the alternative.