The Anonymous Widower

Blood Testing At The Royal London Hospital

The Royal London Hospital is still trying to get to the bottom of my health incident, that I wrote about in The Hour Change Has Completely Knocked Me Out.

On Monday, I had a serious liver scan by ultrasound at Barts Hospital and today, I was phoned up by the Royal London to invite me to take a blood test to check against those that they took a couple of weeks ago.

They said to turn up any day before five and they would do it there and then.

As I was going past the hospital this afternoon, I turned up about two-thirty, without a prior appointment.

I logged myself into a queuing system, which was more McDonalds or Leon, than NHS and sat for about fifteen minutes, whilst the patients in front of me were tested.

As I sat there, I was approached by a doctor doing research. He asked if I would give a couple of extra vials of blood for his research.

As I knew that this would only delay me for a few more seconds, I said yes and filled in his form, which asked no important ethical questions.

Is the system in use at the Royal London Hospital research-friendly?

Suppose, a researcher is looking into the frequency of a particular gene in a population. They could just ask patients for a sample.

November 24, 2022 Posted by | Health | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Did My Protest Work?

It is being reported that Starbucks are now going to pay more Corporation Tax.

Since the storm broke, I’ve not used a large chain of coffee shops, although I have popped into Carluccio’s for the odd cappuccino.

I wonder how many other people have adopted a similar boycott?

It’ll be interesting to see the accounts of the chains as they emerge!

On a related point, I was talking to an American a few days ago, and they didn’t like the way Starbucks behaved on the other side of the pond.

December 7, 2012 Posted by | Business, Food | , , , , | Leave a comment