The importance of pop up tents

This morning I had a conversation with a friend of mine that's just been discharged from a Butlins ward (in the old days they used the term "released" but then they also drilled into our brains and bathed us in ice-cubes). She told me that she found the ward so dirty that she got out her credit card and the Argos catalogue - which is book shelf reading material in these places along side theYellow Pages - ordered a pop up tent and got it delivered to the ward where she set it up in the corridor outside the ward (voluntary patients are often allowed to leave the ward unaccompanied (or in the old days "unchained")until sufficient cleaning was in place. It's funny how staff - cleaners, nurses, managerial - are more than often either off sick, on leave (seriously - how much leave do the NHS get?) or "on a break" in some of those places. What frustrates me when I've been admitted toButlins is that I used to work in these places when I worked in psychiatric nursing years ago, and it feels weird being on the other side - not having keys to the medication cupboard, not being able to walk into the office, and not being able to let one of the patients in when they're standing barefoot in the snow outside, banging on the door which can't be opened because the staff are "on a break".


My friend is coming over next week, having been away my flat is a f*cking tip so I've suggested she brings her pop up tent.


As usual I have permission to share other people's stories.


Link - just in case, click below
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3402052/c_1/1|category_root|Sports+and+leisure|14419152/c_2/2|14419152|Camping|14419397/c_3/3|cat_14419397|Tents|14419414.htm