Inside Story - University College London Hospitals

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Secret lives
By day, Taj Fregene gently eases
people into the deepest of sleeps, at
night he rouses them wide awake.
Instead of mixing oxygen, anaesthesia
and nitrous oxide, he mixes music. The
controlled calm of the operating theatre
may be replaced by the raucous
revelry of a rock venue, but there are
similarities too.
Taj, a specialist registrar, said: “It can
feel strange dealing with an emergency
in the hybrid theatre in the afternoon
and then a couple of hours later doing
a sound check at a gig. Anaesthesia
can be stressful and you have to make
sure you have planned for every
eventuality. That philosophy helps me
on stage too. You must plan well - then
if things start to go wrong
unexpectedly, you can quickly put them
right.”
The five-piece band call themselves
“Alchemy” -an upbeat fusion of hip
hop, indie and pop with influences from
90s Britpop and 70s
Mowtown. They are busy
making a name for
themselves in clubs and
pubs across north London.
“I write about love and
about the realities of
life…songs about when it’s
grey, rainy, you feel rubbish
and you can’t be bothered
to get out of bed. The lyrics
are thought-provoking but
the sing-along melody and
catchy rhythms make
people want to dance.”
Taj, who lives in Tufnell Park, has been
making music since he was a young
lad.
My mum liked glam rock and my dad
preferred the Mowtown greats and I
think they influenced my love of music.
They’re my biggest fans!”
As for fame and fortune, Taj is realistic.
“As long as I can carry on writing
songs and playing music I’ll be happy.
Fame – if it happens, it happens…but
I’m not banking on it. Besides, I like
being an anaesthetist!”
* You can see Alchemy perform at 229
The Venue, 229 Great Portland Street
on Sunday March 27th.
www.ThisIsAlchemy.co.uk
Archives
Miss Godiva Thorold was the matron and Lady
Superintendent of Nurses at The Middlesex Hospital.
She trained at University College Hospital and was
appointed to The Middlesex in 1870. Her working day
was long, rising early and not going to bed before
2.30am, after completing her correspondence. She was
considered to be an authoritarian but improved
conditions for nurses, by creating a pension which
helped attract nurses to remain in charitable institutions
rather than go in to private nursing, which paid more.
She was very
particular on
uniforms, and had
designed a dress
for Lady
Probationers
(women who paid
to train as nurses).
It had a small train
that covered their
ankles so that
when they needed
to stretch across a
patient or over a
bed their ankles
could not be seen
by the medical
students.She
retired in 1905.
Ward of the week
T7
T14
Ward of the week is a QEP initiative that
focuses on efficient patient discharge and
celebrates hard working and successful
teams. Here are some of our recent winners.
Grant Mann, charge nurse on T14 south, said: “We were
thrilled to achieve the Ward of the Week for Pre-11am
discharge. It was the culmination of much hard work”.
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