Page 7 of Swiping Right (and other disasters)

Hannah: “How are you fixed Wednesday evening?”

Kiera put the phone down and clutched her tea to herself, smiling. Wednesday evening, only a few days away. Then she frowned. Could she really do this? Was she ready?

She picked the phone back up and called a familiar number. “Lou, you still up?”

“It’s only nine, I’m not that lame,” replied Lou with faux indignation.

“I bet you’re in your pyjamas already though, right?”

“Guilty as charged. How are you? And more to the point, how is the woman off the app?”

“That’s why I’m calling,” said Kiera, failing to keep the smile from her voice.

“Oh, I see. You haven’t had sex, have you?”

“God no,” said Kiera, spluttering on a mouthful of tea. “I’d have to actually meet her first. And I don’t know if I can go through with it.” Mr Chips crossed the room languidly, and with perfect economy of motion, leapt back onto her lap.

“Look, how am I supposed to live vicariously through you in all this if you won’t actually meet these women?”

“Woman. One woman. And she wants to meet me. This Wednesday,” replied Kiera, running her hand down Mr Chips’ silky back.

“You have to do this. You owe it to yourself,” said Lou, with a seriousness Kiera was unused to from her friend.

“Mmm. Yes, I know. Ok, yes. We’re meeting at the Jam Pot.”

“Good,” said Lou. “Goodnight, bachelorette.”

Chapter Six

“Ugh, so Rick ‘s latest obsession is ‘hard to reach groups’,” said Charlie, using air quotes. “He’s insisting we invite people to sessions here at the hospital, to engage them.” Kiera had only just walked through the office door. She raised her eyebrows.

“As insightful as ever,” she replied, hanging her light jacket on the coat hook on the back of the door and slinging her bag on the floor by her desk. “Presumably it’s not occurred to him that people aren’t actually hard to reach, just that we’re not providing services in the way that makes sense to them.”

“Bullseye,” said Charlie, whirling in his chair.

“Well, let’s see what we can do together. Perhaps we can get something useful for this through the consultation groups I’m running out in the community. I’ve got the service list now from the Medical Director. Hip replacements is right at the top. I’m going to get some groups of patients here at the hospital, but also I’m going out to community centres in Saltley and Kingstanding and a few other places. Want to join forces? We could put a few churches, Gurdwaras and Mosques on the list to try and get a nice diverse set of people to hear from.”

“Oh my God, K, you are a total lifesaver,” said Charlie, a smile slowly growing on his face.

“Well, you’ll have to work with me, and we’ll need to get some of the team involved. But, you know, it’s what I do.” Kiera logged into her inbox, and saw an invite to visit the clinic where hip replacements were discussed by the doctors with their patients. It was a chance to see how everything worked. Perfect.

One of Kiera’s favourite activities was seeing how services worked firsthand. Each doctor, each nurse, each administrator, healthcare assistant, porter, cleaner, volunteer had their own job, looking after one small part of a particular process. Kiera’s job was to follow the whole process through, listen to patients, and provide feedback on how things might be made better for them.

She strolled down to outpatients where there were already a range of folk sitting in the maroon wipe-clean seats. She checked in at reception, where the service manager was waiting for her. Pritesh smiled – they’d worked together before and he always welcomed the chance to do something with Kiera and her team. That was not always the case. She could sometimes be seen as a bit of a busybody, especially among medical staff.

“Nice to see you, Kiera,” he said. “Let’s get you started.” He steered her into the waiting area where two familiar figures sat leafing through booklets on different procedures. “This is Dawn and Brian.”

“Well, what a lovely surprise to see you both again,” said Kiera, holding out her hand to the couple who looked up.

“Aw now, that’s good,” said Brian. He was wearing the same flat cap she’d seen him in the last time they’d met. “They said someone was going to follow us round today to see how it all works, and what we thought about it all. I didn’t know it would be you. That’s lovely, isn’t it, Dawn?”

Dawn smiled. “It’s lovely. Though I don’t know what I can tell you that you don’t already know,” she added, shaking her head a little.

Pritesh smiled and left them to it. Kiera pulled up a chair to sit by Brian and Dawn. “You might think that, Dawn. But I’ll be honest, we can always do things better. And you’re the expert on how all this feels, right?”

“Well, I s’pose so,” she said, her expression still a little bemused. “Time was we just did what the doctor told us. He’s the real expert, right?”

“Yes, I suppose that’s true from a medical perspective,” Kiera agreed. “Your doctor will know the surgical procedures and facts, but he or she won’t have any idea about you, what works for you, what doesn’t. They won’t know how you feel, whether the waiting room is too hot or too cold, or whether you feel like you understand everything that’s happening to you. There’s only one expert on that, and it’s you.”

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