Tom Littlewood
Many a long year ago, I was Head of Security at a major London Teaching Hospital. At this hospital, we had a Psychiatric Ward on the 2nd floor. It was an ‘enclosed’ unit, though I must emphasise that the patients were just that - patients. Thus, although the unit was enclosed, it was no gaol and people would frequently be ‘coming and going’.
Now Tom was the Senior Nursing Officer of this unit. He was the Regimental Sergeant Major. A hands-on man, who was also highly qualified in his profession, and very highly regarded by one and all. His commonsense approach to his work was obvious, and this came across in lectures that he gave on ‘restraint of violent patients’. I ensured that I and all members of the security staff attended his lectures, which were excellent.
One day, I was ‘paged’ (no personal radios in those days!!) and told that a man was acting strangely in the hospital. I attended, and met with a member of my security staff who pointed out to me the culprit. He was, at that moment, in the public reataurant of the hospital, staring straight ahead, and standing in the middle of nowhere. People were looking at him wondering what on earth he was doing. I immediately sussed that he was from the psychiatric unit and, as the security officer was in uniform and I was not, I told him to go and contact Tom, and I would keep an eye on chummy. Chummy was about 6′3″ tall, heavily built, unusually he was wearing a belted white raincoat, and simply kept staring ahead. Now, I don’t know whether you have had any dealings with a person who is unfortunate enough to have mental health problems, but I have. They are not easily handled, and if violent, are extremely difficult to restrain. So, I just kept watch on him, praying that Tom would arrive before anything could happen to trigger-off a re-action from chummy. He wandered around the various areas near the restaurant, then began to move further afield, into the offices. He didn’t actually go into the offices. He just stood outside the doors, staring in and not saying a word. He did have a rather vacant look on his face.
Tom eventually arrived and I pointed chummy out to him. Tom went up to him and I stood back, so as not to provoke chummy, but near enough to go to Tom’s assistance if necessary. Tom spoke to him briefly, and the chap nodded, and moved off in the direction of the psychiatric unit. Tom came over, and I said, “I thought he was one of yours from the 2nd floor.”
“Yes”, Tom replied, “He’s an Agency Nurse!”
Posted in Uncategorized
