Day one: London Heathrow airport
Thursday 18 March 2010
Sitting at Heathrow airport with Keith Lawrence and Trevor Payne, waiting to board our flight to Newark, New York.
Thinking back the last time I left the UK from Heathrow was when I went on another trip to Uganda. This was with University College London Hospital (UCLH) and a couple of my colleagues Graham Joslin and Bami Folaramni; we funded the refurbishment of a ward at the hospital in Kampala. This was such a good experience and we learnt so much from the trip and the local community, that when the opportunity to visit America with UCLH came up, it seemed too good to miss.
So, why are we going to the States? Trevor invited Keith and I to join him on a study tour of New York, Cleveland and Boston. University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, is building a Cancer Centre as part of the health estate redevelopment. HMU will oversee this redevelopment from investment to build and ongoing operation and maintenance, whilst at Interserve we’ll be involved in the daily facilities management of the buildings. Therefore it is vital that we take this opportunity to work together to ensure the new development is a success.
The study tour will look at how healthcare is delivered in the United States of America and what lessons we can learn and share with our colleagues on the other side of the Atlantic.
I’ll keep everyone up to date with what we are doing with our blog... so keep reading for more information.