Monday 28 May 2012

Grim Happenings at Glenfield Hospital [1]

Dark and Dastardly Deeds of Deception
Glenfield Hospital is a major focus for healthcare in the Leicester area. It is located in sylvan seclusion just off the Groby Road, once the main A50 from Leicester to Burton-upon-Trent.

And you might want to get there by bus. So have a look at the Leicester Hospitals web site:-
Leicester buses arrive and depart from the Haymarket Bus Station at the Haymarket Shopping Centre and St. Margaret's Bus Station in Gravel Street, or from the many city centre stops. Both bus stations are about 15 minutes walk from the railway station where there is a stop for the Hospital Hopper, which is a shuttle bus running between the three Leicester's hospitals sites.

Apart from a list of bus companies, that's it. As a source of information, it is about as helpful as a chocolate teapot. Poor marks to the NHS.

Sorry, there is a downloadable leaflet for route UHL, a health service sponsored link between various sites, clearly provided mainly for staff but available to the public.
This runs from the station but not from the City centre ...
tr65
... except that it doesn't, quite. The stop is at "Nila Palace", a restaurant, some 200 metres up London Road and without an obvious direction sign from the station.
And, in case you wondered, the three letters "U", "H" and "L" stand for "Hospital Hopper." And it's no good for weekend visiting; it runs Monday to Friday only.
Never mind, the Leicester bus map and guide will doubtless tell us all that we need to know.
BK is on Abbey Street about halfway between Charles Street and St Margarets bus station. AC is on Causeway Lane outside the new High Cross Shopping Centre. BB is on Haymarket; that's not the same as Haymarket bus station which, as its name suggests, is on Charles Street. BF is on Church Gate, round the corner from High Cross; FF is even further away at St Nicholas Circle but convenient (?) for the Park and Ride Hub. The associated map makes it clear (?).
fbb will be testing you all this tomorrow.

What's more, you'd be daft to use the 302. It is about as long a way round as you could imagine.
The hospital is towards the top of the map, on the little wiggle off the "red" road, the sixth stop from the outer terminus at Beaumont Leys. So that leaves the 14A ...
... every 20 minutes Monday to Saturday, every 30 minutes on Sundays via the New Parks Estate ...
... journey time half an hour. Not much of a service for a busy hospital is it? But if that's all there is, we had better grin and bear it, trudge to Abbey Street's attractive and luxurious stop ...
... and set off hopefully.

But in tomorrow's blog, fbb will surpise you; or perhaps not if you are a regular fbb blog reader.

In the meantime, enjoy this pic of a preserved Leicester bus in its distinguished maroon and cream livery ...
... emulated (approximately) in the "next blog" tag below.

 Next blog : Tuesday 29th May 

1 comment:

  1. One interesting point is that while it doesn't list the services that go past the edge of Glenfield Hospital it is showing the temporary stand allocations caused by the rebuilding of Humberstone Gate that has closed the 4 stands at Haymarket Bus Station on Charles Street one of which the 14A normally uses (which only occurred a month or so ago and is temporary - though lengthy) to accomodate the changes to stands around the city centre (with clear signs on each affected stop), though quite why I'm not entirely sure as none of the affected services go past these stops (the only possible reason is to allow more overtaking space due to the increase in alighting services on the stops opposite).

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