July 4th

I was in Park Royal today to pick up a chair I had bought at auction and popped into Central Middlesex Hospital to see how it was ageing. I had not been there for a number of years and was hugely gratified – and a little surprised - to see that it looks virtually brand new. It has obviously been very well maintained by the Trust so many thanks to their estates team and- dare I say it – to those of us who detailed it.

When we were working for the Trust 5 years ago the then CEO had a visceral hatred of Central Middlesex, which I always found slightly odd as we strode around the dystopian reality of his brutal, inefficient and utterly inflexible Northwick Park HQ, Well CMH is apparently still there and looks as good as new in stark contrast to its decaying neighbour. I wish the Trust’s strategic team could actually use CMH to its true potential and max out its surgical and diagnostic capacity. I have heard all the arguments about its location, size and shifting demography etc. etc. but it is still by far the best clinical real estate they have and it deserves to be allowed to succeed.