Saturday, January 13, 2007

Lothian NHS 101

In my last post I had a footnote explaining what the initials PMR stood for. I'm probably going to be chronicling our forthcoming epic sojourn to the Royal Infirmary over the next few months, so it would make sense to introduce you to some of the abbreviations for our hospitals.

Astley Ainslie: aka "Ghastly Astley". Rehabilitation centre set in several acres of scenic park land in the middle of Edinburgh.
ERI: Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. A fictional hospital that only exists in the pages of the Scotsman and Evening News.
LITTLE FRANCE: A flood plain. The location of the RIE, and an alternative name.
LUHNT: Lothian University Hospitals NHS Trust. Or is it NHS Lothian? They keep changing the name, but the people stay the same. All hospitals in Lothian belong to this. There used to be separate trusts a few years ago, but they all amalgamated when the New Royal was built.
NRIE: New Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. An alternative name for the RIE. PFI funded replacement to the Old Royal. Not to be confused with the Titanic.(See RIE, LITTLE FRANCE)
OLD ROYAL: The site of the RIE for 130 years in the heart of Edinburgh. Consisted mostly of long Nightingale wards with a dozen beds along each wall. Now being turned into luxury flats.
PAEP: Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion. One of Europe's foremost eye hospitals and my place of work.
PMR: Princess Margaret Rose. As mentioned, it used to be an orthopaedic hospital before it was transferred to the Royal Infirmary. The site has now been turned into luxury flats.
RIE: Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. The most prestigious teaching hospital on the planet. Now onto its third site on a flood plain called Little France.(See NRIE, LITTLE FRANCE) Has the busiest A&E department in Britain.
Royal Ed: Royal Edinburgh Psychiatric Hospital in Morningside.
St Johns: Large hospital in Livingston that serves West Lothian. All Head & Neck services are there, except for...you guessed it - eyes!
WGH: Western General Hospital. Large hospital in north Edinburgh. The wards there are mostly medical - renal, gastro-intestinal, infectious diseases etc.

I hope that's clear. I may be using them a bit in future, so you might be wise to bookmark this page for reference.

3 comments:

Bo... said...

I've always wanted to visit Scotland. My last name is a Scottish one, although nobody in our family has ever been able to trace the actual lineage.

ZZ said...

just find this place by chance. have to say ur content is wonderful and i really like it. do carry on with ur nice work!

Deacon Barry said...

Scottish surnames are divided geographically. Macs and Mcs to the north, everything else to the south. In my ancestry I've got Browns, Carmichaels, Mortons and possibly Duffs, all lowland names. Of course, some Mcs are Irish, just to confuse the issue.
Welcome Zachary. I like the pictures on your blog.