Heroes Not Zombies

When I was a teenager I worked in the local hospital for a few weeks during the school summer holidays. I worked first as a “ward orderly” then as a “theatre orderly”. Both of these jobs were primarily cleaning jobs but a theatre orderly also had to transport patients to and from the surgical theatres, and the ward orderly also made and distributed tea, coffee, water and other drinks as well as serving meals.

There were daily tasks, weekly ones and monthly ones. It was one of my favourite monthly ones which came back to my mind when I spotted this man polishing the brasses on the balconies above a restaurant in the middle of Segovia.

There were brass plates and handles on the doors of the wards in my day, and plates on the ground too where the doors were hinges. Polishing the brasses was a monthly task and bringing them up to that beautiful bright colour.

Funny, isn’t it, how a small, chance observation can spin you back decades and remind you of little tasks, little pleasures from many decades ago. Of course, this simple memory soon spreads in every direction and I’m quickly remembering what it was like to work in a hospital where, over a few years, I was on first name terms with everyone who worked there…..doctors, nurses, cleaners, porters, secretaries and managers.

I went on to spend the second half of my medical career in a small hospital where, similarly, everyone knew everyone.

I can’t stress how strongly I value that. It’s a bit like Schumacher’s “Small is Beautiful”…..human sized enterprises remain much better attached to human values than vast, industrialised ones.

I’m convinced we should put people before processes and/or profits. It’s likely my teenage experiences embedded that belief in me.