‘But you’ve not seen her?’ Agnes asked.
He hesitated. ‘No. Mr Simcock did and he’s doing the operation. I’m afraid I don’t have her notes here so I can only give you a general idea of what’s going on.’
‘Can’t we see Mr Simcock?’ said Agnes.
‘I’m afraid he’s got a very busy schedule today. If you make an appointment, that would probably be best.’
‘How serious is it?’ I said. ‘Is this…is it life-threatening?’
‘It can be, yes. The fact that she’s been seen quickly and that she’s not in coma so they’ve been able to operate, those are grounds for optimism, but there’s no denying it is a critical situation. They could be up in theatre for a while but you’re welcome to wait or you could ring the ward for details later.’
Agnes agreed there was no point in waiting.
‘Very well,’ said the doctor, ‘goodbye.’ He made a point of shaking hands with both of us before he went.
I dropped Agnes off and offered to take her back later – it’d have to be after six as I’d got to pick the children up and feed them. She would ring the hospital to find out when Lily was back from theatre.
I called home for a sandwich and stuck a load in the washing machine. I walked round the corner to work. Where the pavement had flooded, the water had frozen into puddles of ice. The city’s low lying, the land’s flat and full of clay, there are countless underwater streams as well as the River Mersey to swell and seep every time it rains. If it’s not falling on your head it’s creeping up your ankles.
The office was so cold I could see my breath. I switched the convector heater on full and began to defrost. Mused over Lily’s moves, from her own home to a residential home, then to the psychiatric hospital, now the Infirmary. Dr Goulden had been very quick to get Lily Palmer out of the community and into the Marion Unit at Kingsfield. There hadn’t been any waiting about. Was that unusual? Hoping that Dr Goulden was still out of his surgery I rang his receptionist.
‘Hello, it’s Jean Brown here from Social Services. I’m just checking on current clinic arrangements between general practitioners and local nursing and residential care homes for the elderly. Now I’ve got Dr Goulden down for Homelea – does he still run a clinic there?’
‘Yes,’ she replied, ‘and he does Aspen Lodge as well.’
‘Oh, yes! Over the page! Thanks for your help.’
Aspen Lodge was in the phone book. This time I was Monica Saunders researching transfers to the Marion Unit for the Health Commission.
‘We’re doing an audit now to assess the current attainment targets and the efficiency of the Unit. I need the details of any transfers over the last twelve months.’