Lobbying for a Lobby….

The hospital confuses the bejeezus out of me. “Meet me in the lobby”. “No problem”. Hellloooooo!!!

I didn’t realize there were so many lobby’s until I went to the hospital to “meet someone in the lobby”… at the QEII they said! We’ve got the VG, QEII, the Infirmary and then Camp Hill… plus other buildings like Abbie Lane and the Rehab… but are they all considered QEII? And what’s it mean by Capital District Health Authority?

VG is off South. I got that one figured out. That was the “old emerg“. But where the heck is the QEII!!!! It’s all a little confusing to me… then again… I don’t head that way too often. Throw in the fact that the “new” QEII is next to the “old” QEH and I simply turn into a blubbering idiot! I think they need to run public service announcements to explain it to us morons… mostly to me!

I got emergency figured out now… the hard way… I followed the green signs with the big H and ended up going the wrong way into the hospital… into the emergency. Really… sorry… no emergency here… just meetin‘ a friend for coffee… do you know where the lobby is and what the heck is all this construction? New Emergency? To replace the New Emergency that replaced the Old Emergency. Seriously?

Did you know the Tim Horton’s at the hospital are “fake”? They don’t wear Tim’s uniforms and there was a sign that said “Thank you for your patronage. We are employees of Capitol District Health Authority so therefore do not accept gratuities.” Are you serious? I figure since we’re all used to tipping the Tim’s gal… couldn’t they collect our tips to put them towards something the hospital needs? Like possibly public service announcements telling us where the QEII is??? Oh, and by the way, just in case you’re ever in a “fake” Tim’s in one of “multiple” lobby’s at the hospital… “we’re sorry but we don’t accept Tim’s gift cards here”… but they got rrrrrrrrrrrrrrroll up the rrrrrrrrrrrrrrim!!

I made my way through the parking garage and sat in the lobby at “Robie Street” for a few minutes. Considered getting myself a coffee at Fake Tim’s but then thought I’d check with the woman at the Administration desk to see if this was the “QEII lobby”. She smiled at me and sent me on my way to the “main lobby”… down the hallway… past a few doors… turn left…. follow the blue tiles… down to the elevators which you think are the elevators but realize they are the “service” elevators… a little further down the hall to the “real” elevators and onto the 1st floor. Holy I wish there were Trains like in the IWK… or is it the Grace… is it the “new” Grace… and whatever happened to the “old” Grace?

I sat in a lovely lobby at the “Summer Street” entrance and had a fine cup of tea from a Fake Tim’s and perused the doctors for awhile. Gotta tell you… it won’t be the last time I’ll be “lobby hopping”… I might even haul along a few of my single girlfriends and have t-shirts made up! While sitting there, I got a kick out of the woman running the “purse cart”. Apparently you can shop for jewellery, purses and scarves while at the hospital. She apologized to a few customers about how “messy” her cart was… but would sit back on the stool when they left and go back to her magazine until the next person came along and she’d apologize again. I wanted to yell “tidy it up… it’s a cart for goodness sake… how long is it going to take!” Then she had this problem with her cart rolling around on the floor so she took a bit of time to make sure the wheels were “locked” into place… chances are they use the same wheels they use on the beds upstairs. At least now we know what they do with the old gurneys from the old hospitals… turn em’ into “purse carts”. No wonder there’s never enough “beds”… they’ve all been tranformed into carts!

My tea was nearly finished when my friend called to see where I was… seems she was sitting in the lobby at the VG. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Rolled up my Rim and headed out of the building! Had a lovely coffee with my friend. Always nice to chat with an old friend… even if it involved a lobby hunt. Think I’ll lobby for a new lobby!

Did a little research after my long day lobbying for Fake Tim’s… here’s the deal… turns out QEII is made up of TEN buildings in TWO sites, the Halifax Infirmary Site and the Victoria General site as listed on the website http://www.cdha.nshealth.ca/ . The Halifax Infirmary Site is made up of Abbie Lane, Camp Hill Veteran’s Memorial and Halifax Infirmary. The Victoria General Site is made up of Bethune, Centennial and Victoria buildings, Centre for Clinical Research, Dickson, MacKenzie and the Nova Scotia Rehab Centre. By the way… the Halifax Infirmary Site is the “new” infirmary… as opposed to the “old” infirmary which was torn down a few years back.

From what I can tell… they each have a Fake Tim’s and a Purse Cart.