Free Go Not Gently by Cath Staincliffe

gather Lily’s things together. I was doing that when I heard people arguing in the corridor. It was Mrs Knight and Dr Goulden. He was shouting something about checking the bottles, accounting for everything. I couldn’t hear her reply, then he said he knew it had been the middle of the night, except he used very strong language, but it was still her responsibility.’ Dr Goulden seemed to have a propensity for bawling out his female colleagues.
    ‘Then they came into the room. He asked me what the hell I thought I was doing and told me to put everything back. Mrs Knight explained I was a friend and when he realised I wasn’t another resident his manner changed. I think she was quite embarrassed, she went crimson. Well, he explained that Lily’s tablets hadn’t been returned to the medicine cupboard as they always were in between doses. He said it had probably been overlooked in the commotion. He asked me to empty out the bags I was filling so he could check I’d not packed them by mistake.’
    Agnes leant forward and replenished our cups. ‘I knew I hadn’t and I told him so but he insisted. He said it was a serious offence for drugs to be unaccounted for. So I tipped it all out and he rifled through it and thanked me and apologised for any confusion, as he put it, then off he went. I suppose they worry about somebody taking the wrong drugs.’
    ‘Lily hadn’t taken them with her?’
    ‘No. She didn’t take anything at all. Just the night clothes she was wearing. Mrs Valley-Brown said she had been extremely distressed and they’d found it impossible to calm her. She was already on tranquillisers, she didn’t respond to the sedative they tried and they didn’t want to give her anything stronger.’
    I wondered whether Dr Goulden had done anything about Lily’s medicine in the week since we’d seen him. The situation certainly hadn’t stabilised and Lily had obviously become worse. But again I came back to the fact that I was no doctor. I might be able to uncover signs of negligence if Goulden had ignored our concerns and had not been monitoring Lily, but I thought that was about the best I could hope for.
    ‘There’s a limit to what I can do.’ I put my cup down. ‘One or two visits to Kingsfield, see Lily, perhaps find a friendly staff member to ask about her case. Try to establish what happened the night she was transferred and whether Goulden had failed to see she was getting worse. Even if we could prove that and made an official complaint there’s no guarantee anything would come of it. Did you talk to Charles about getting a second opinion?’
    ‘He said he’d consider it. I think he thought I was overreacting. Charles doesn’t like to rock the boat.’
    ‘Well, now she’s at the hospital she will be seeing a different doctor. It might be better for her.’
    ‘Yes,’ she nodded. ‘Can you go tomorrow?’
    ‘Yes. With you?’
    ‘I can’t,’ she began to load the tray, ‘I’ve a funeral in the morning.’
    ‘How about the afternoon?’
    ‘The chiropodist.’
    I was surprised that she wouldn’t be rearranging the routine appointment to visit her friend. She seemed a little ashamed too, refused to meet my eye as she busied herself with the tea things. Maybe she’d waited months for the chiropodist to come; perhaps she’d drop to the bottom of the list if she cancelled.
    ‘All right. So I just turn up.’
    ‘They call it the Marion Unit. If you could take some things for her. I’ve sorted out the essentials for now, things she might need immediately. There’s a bag in the hall.’
    ‘OK. So, I’ll go along tomorrow. We can always visit together after that and I’ll see if I can arrange for us to meet the consultant.’
    ‘Yes,’ she said, without much enthusiasm. Dr Goulden’s tantrum had probably put her off the profession altogether.
    I had a swim at lunchtime, followed by a disappointing shower. Cold. More of a dribble than a shower really. There was lots of talk about