When i fell off my motorbike in November, i fractured my right collarbone very badly- it looked like someone had tried to snap a bough of a tree in half and that it had splintered instead of snapped. This was compounded when i picked my motorbike up and lifted it onto its stand and shrugged off my backpack and jacket. Mid-way through i heard a snap and thought it was the fairing of the bike. What it was was my collarbone fracturing again, so it looked like a ‘Z’ (if you can imagine that!) I was rushed to Nevil Hall and was seen within 45mins (which on a friday night amongst all the drunks with battle-damage was quite impressive I thought. I was x-rayed (the ONLY down point of my service there- when the nurse failed to realise that to hold my arm out from my side for an x-ray would be impossible and snapped at me for not immediatly obeying her commands.) A 10 minute wait and I was being discharged with some painkillers and told to wait by the phone. After 2days, they rang to tell me to come into a ward. I was operated on that afternoon, by a surgeon whom I never had the oppertunity of meeting AT ALL, slept the night there in comfort, being looked after by two AMAZINGLY hot nurses (one Swede, the other Chinese), and was discharged the next morning, with 3 plates, 7 pins in my clavicle and an amazing scar that makes all the girls take notice (see picture).

I found the service to be of an extremely high standard, and I stress that I was on the NHS. Maybe there are people with injuries that hurt more than a broken toe eh? As for the staff- imagine 15 hour shifts amongst so many ungrateful people and red tape, burocracy and lets face it, an absolutely disgusting job. My mum used to be a State Registered Nurse in the very ward was was on- and she says that whilst fufilling, it certainly wasn’t fun sometimes…
BARNOWL