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A hospital for your ambition
What is it with Oxford's hospitals ?
For years, two of the main hospitals in the city were called respectively the John Radcliffe and the Radcliffe Infirmary. People frequently referred to either as "the Radcliffe".
Why yes, since you ask, that did cause quite a lot of confusion.
This morning I headed up to The Nuffield, Headington, for a physio appointment. I was running late (having broken the cardinal rule of Oxford driving, notably do not go up Divinity Road when in a hurry). I then wasted twenty minutes in various different departments until we finally deduced that I should have been at Nuffield Hospital Oxford (The Manor). Which is also in Headington.
Next time anyone builds a hospital in Oxford, can we lobby them to give it a name which is, like, distinct from all the other medical establishments ?
For years, two of the main hospitals in the city were called respectively the John Radcliffe and the Radcliffe Infirmary. People frequently referred to either as "the Radcliffe".
Why yes, since you ask, that did cause quite a lot of confusion.
This morning I headed up to The Nuffield, Headington, for a physio appointment. I was running late (having broken the cardinal rule of Oxford driving, notably do not go up Divinity Road when in a hurry). I then wasted twenty minutes in various different departments until we finally deduced that I should have been at Nuffield Hospital Oxford (The Manor). Which is also in Headington.
Next time anyone builds a hospital in Oxford, can we lobby them to give it a name which is, like, distinct from all the other medical establishments ?
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However. The "Oxford Radcliffe" has been known as JR or JR2 to locals since - well, since it opened properly, I guess, so July 1972*. The RI is/was the RI and/or the Infirmary. I've never come across anyone mixing the two up, particularly since the two have never really had much overlap. I can see how they could get mixed up if you don't know either hospital, but honestly you're the first person to mention confusing the two that I can ever recall. Curious.
* How to tell how old Oxford-born people are without explicitly asking. If they admit they were born in the RI, they are older than 36.5. If they were born in the JR they are younger than 36.25. If they are exactly my age, they were born in a makeshift ward in the Churchill, thanks to a bit of poor service-transfer planning. :D
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When I first realised I was in the wrong place, I rang The Manor and said "I'm at the wrong end of the hospital, in the NHS bit, I'll be there in a few minutes". It'd have been very helpful if the guy I spoke to had pointed out that they didn't have an NHS bit, and thus I was clearly in the wrong place.
Also if the people at The Manor referred to it as "The Manor" it would help.
Anyone who knows (or, now, knew) there were two Radcliffes used the JR/RI terminology and had no problem with it. However, on a number of occasions I've had to queueueue at the reception of one or other of them while the person at the front of the queue had it carefully explained to them that they were on completely the wrong side of the city.
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Doh! to the man at The Manor. Yeah, the NHS bit would be a huge clue. At least the two aren't 4 miles apart, anyway.
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They are pretty close, though. Certainly easier to get between them than from the RI to the JR.
If you've gone to A&E and survived, you are pretty lucky. Both the JR and the RI (not A&E in that case, obviously) have had serious goes at killing friends of mine. I dread injuring myself in Oxford (even more than I dread injuring myself in general).
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...and now I am terrified of turning up at the wrong Nuffield for Saturday's MRI...
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Strictly speaking, the main hospital is now the Oxford Radcliffe but you'll note that the website calls it the John Radcliffe. :D (The RI never had the word 'John' in its name.)
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The only time I went there was for the Eye Hospital bit, which involved cycling across Oxford in the dead of night with one hand clasped to my excruciatingly painful eye. I hadn't called an ambulance, out of some confused feeling that it was poor etiquette to do so for oneself.
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"The site has been earmarked for expansion of the humanities and mathematics departments in the University of Oxford."
... so I presume the latter.
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(I didn't have any written correspondence from my appointment, or I might have noticed that the address of the hospital didn't match up with the location I supposed it to be in).
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Yup. The Nufcliffe.
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I always thought 'The Radcliffe' meant the infirmary, as people also spoke of 'The JR'. But until today I didn't know there were two Nuffields in the hospital context.
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There really aren't enough names to go round in Oxford. See also "Clarendon".
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Tush and pish!
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