by Penny Parkes
‘You’re probably wondering why I asked you all to come?’ Julia began.
‘Have you been at the Agatha Christie again?’ Grace said, unusually irritable. ‘I’ll save you some time – it was the exhausted Practice Manager in the doctors’ lounge with a scalpel – the jury will exonerate her, based on the hours she’d spent on Excel spread-sheets last night and the fact that she’s had three hours sleep!’
Everyone around the table was shocked into silence. Grace looked up and saw their faces. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘Did I say all that out loud?’ She appeared to be on the verge of tears and pushed back her chair as though to leave.
Dan, who had been sitting beside her, turned swiftly and took her hand. ‘Sit down, Gracie. Let’s have this meeting and then we can talk about the overtime that’s driving you to distraction.’ He handed her his coffee to supplement her own and Holly noticed Julia twitch at the intimacy of the gesture.
‘Right,’ Julia said. ‘I know we’ve all been juggling our own personal issues a little of late, but I thought it might be time for a little frank conversation? I know what I think our biggest challenges are, but let’s go around the table and start having an honest dialogue about our concerns, shall we?
‘Who’d like to start?’ she challenged. Holly deliberately kept her gaze averted, this open platform to have a moan was all well and good, and might conceivably be productive, but she was deeply concerned that once she started, she wouldn’t stop.
‘Taffy?’ Julia said, putting him on the spot, as he’d accidentally managed to catch her eye whilst eyeballing the last pain aux raisins.
‘Right then,’ said Taffy, his Welsh twang incredibly pronounced under pressure. ‘Well, I’ll kick off by saying that Grace is carrying too heavy a load on the admin front, this Model Surgery bollocks is causing all sorts of nervousness amongst the team, we’re very worried about poor little Coco, Quentin is telling all the staff that you’re leaving, we’ve loads of money raised from the Health in the Community launch but no clear plan how to spend it, and you and Dan bickering like teenagers is really starting to piss everybody off.’ He paused for breath and looked around the table. ‘Did I miss anything?’ he drummed his fingers repetitively on the table and Holly had to use all her willpower not to reach out and clamp his hand still.
Silence.
Alice tentatively raised a hand. ‘Do I really need to be here, only this seems like it might be a partners’ meeting . . .’
Holly couldn’t help but agree. It was one thing for the four of them to squabble behind the scenes, it was quite another for poor Alice to be exposed to their petty rivalries and resentments.
Grace cleared her throat. ‘Actually, Alice, if I may, I think it’s a good idea we both stay. Better to hear things from the horse’s mouth, I often find.’ She gaped unattractively for a moment. ‘Not that I’m calling you a horse, Julia!’
To everyone’s intense surprise, Julia burst out laughing. ‘This is brilliant. We should have done this months ago. All this crap—’ she enunciated the ‘p’ to perfection and sat back in her chair. ‘Okay then, let’s start working the issues.
‘May I start?’ she looked to Dan for his support and Holly knew then what Julia was doing – she was hiding the headline. ‘It’s true that Quentin has offered me a job, but it is incredibly unprofessional of him and premature to tell anyone that I intend to accept the position. I would welcome your patience while I decide what to do and I can promise you it will not be a decision I take lightly.’
Holly frowned. Julia was sounding more and more like a politician or TV spokesperson and less and less like herself. She wanted to be cross with her partner for selling out, but instead Holly found herself concerned.
Julia had carried on talking all this time, filling in the details of the job offer and how it would likely affect them all, should she choose to accept it. ‘We also wanted to tell you all together, that Dan and I have sadly, but respectfully, chosen to part ways in our personal life, but that we are confident that our friendship means that this will have little impact on our working relationship.’
To be fair, thought Holly, there was very little ‘we’ involved in that statement, as Dan was looking just as surprised as the others around the table. Taffy turned to stare at her in shock, narrowing his eyes as he realised that, for Holly at least, this was hardly breaking news. ‘You knew?’ he mouthed at her.
She nodded, hoping that he wouldn’t be furious.
He looked incredibly irritated for a fleeting moment, before nodding his approval, presumably grateful that Dan had found somebody he felt able to talk to.
Dan spoke up then. ‘We wanted to let the dust settle a little,’ he glanced at Julia, ‘make sure we were completely happy with our decision, so please forgive us if there was a little delay in sharing the news.’ He looked straight at Taffy.
‘Well,’ said Taffy, trying to lighten the atmosphere, ‘at least we’ve got one or two other things to focus on, rather than whether you two are going to have another lovers’ tiff in the stock room.’ He grinned at Julia. ‘The things I’ve heard through the air vents to my office! So take note, young Alice, if you and Jamie are looking for a little alone time, there’s no such thing as privacy around here!’
‘Taffy!’ she protested, on the spot and embarrassed. ‘Besides, I reckon it’s Grace we should be talking to,’ Alice deflected, ‘Jamie’s rather fallen for her chocolate Hobnobs.’
Holly sat back in her chair, drinking her coffee and watching the meeting descend into chaos around her. She would have to have been blind to miss the grumpy expression on Dan’s face, but perhaps she was the only one to have noticed when it began.
She looked over at Julia to find her glowering at Grace and quickly realised, maybe not.
‘I’d like to talk about the Model Surgery,’ Holly interrupted loudly. ‘I’d like to talk about the balance of give and take. And actually I’d like to discuss a more proactive approach. If they’ve never made this nomination before, then I don’t believe we have to simply accept their demands or their terms. Obviously,’ she cast a glance at Alice, ‘we don’t want to jeopardise the perks and benefits of the situation and we are already committed, but I think we can all agree that taking time away from our patients, or indeed running our Practice Manager into the ground is hardly a long-term solution.’
‘Hear, hear,’ said Grace whole-heartedly, before hurriedly shutting her mouth. ‘I just meant to say, well, I agree. But I really do want to be your liaison person, so please don’t take it away from me altogether.’
Sitting around the table, batting ideas back and forth, with Grace pulling contracts and paperwork like magic from her Big Green Folder, they achieved more in the name of unity than they had in the months before. It was ironic in a way, thought Holly, as she scribbled a few items of note onto her agenda, that it was Julia – the most divisive and opinionated out of all of them– that had been the one to get them around the table.
She couldn’t have been more delighted to hear Dan championing some of the concerns she had raised on the bench the other morning. He looked over at her and gave a supportive wink. She sat back, happy for once to let someone else take the lead.
‘For what it’s worth,’ said Taffy, ‘if we’re going to discuss the local funding for the Health in the Community Scheme, I’d like to make a suggestion. We can control the education and mobile clinic budget, but I think we should set aside a certain amount and let the residents of Larkford nominate a worthy cause, what do you say? Can we take a look at the Big Picture?’
Holly took a deep breath. Every time Taffy uttered the phrase ‘Big Picture’, she could hear his pompous brother’s voice in her head and it felt like nails on a blackboard. He obviously had no idea how often he said it, or how it undermined his credibility in Holly’s eyes.
‘Strike one for democracy!’ said Dan, oblivious. ‘As long as it doesn’t involve another slave auction. I don’t envy Taffy having to spend a day with blousy Betsy Harr
ington. She’ll be wanting to get her money’s worth out of you, mate!’
‘Living in fear, mate. Living in fear.’ said Taffy with feeling. ‘Still, she’s got six months to call in her docket. Maybe she’ll have forgotten by then? Any Alzheimer’s in her family? Degenerative diseases?’ He looked around the table hopefully.
Julia shook her head. ‘So, then, Alice . . .’
Alice looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights for a moment. ‘Yes?’ she said tentatively.
‘What can we do to help with Coco?’
Holly looked up, jolted from her own reflections and caught unawares by the fact that Julia had even noticed there was a problem.
Alice shrugged. ‘Bear with us for a bit? I know it must be annoying, but Jamie’s doing everything he can, so it might be a case of wait and see?’
Holly leaned forward. ‘Don’t forget to get that list of names together for me. We can have a look and see if there’s a common link? It could be something as simple as undiagnosed diabetes . . .’
Alice nodded gratefully. ‘Now that would be great – well, not for them obviously, but for Coco.’
Grace scribbled another note on the points of action plan she had volunteered to type up and circulate. ‘Just one thing,’ she said, looking from Julia to Dan. ‘I know it’s not easy, but I think the rest of the staff would prefer to be told about your, er, new situation, rather than hear it as gossip? Even a round-robin e-mail? The nurses sometimes feel as though they aren’t really in the heart of the team and, to be honest, meetings like this might feed in to that?’
Julia looked appalled at the notion, but Dan was clearly not planning on letting her off easily. ‘Rock-Paper-Scissors?’ he suggested.
Holly stepped outside into the morning sunshine and checked her watch. Her entire body clock had been thrown out of sync by the mad morning rush to get here, but she couldn’t deny it had been the most productive hour they had spent on the admin front in weeks. And they had Julia to thank!
Taffy wrapped his arms around her shoulders, the air still carrying a chill until the warmth of the day banished every drop of dew. ‘Well, that was a bit surreal. And, you know, even though we’ve all been joking about it for months, I still can’t believe Dan and Julia are really over. They’re like Romeo and Juliet, aren’t they? All passion and squabbling, but can’t be apart?’
Holly turned to face him. ‘Nah, they were star-crossed lovers, remember? These two are more Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton – can’t live with each other—’
‘Can’t live without each other,’ Taffy finished. ‘Although I am thinking that, if that’s your go-to reference, you might be spending far too much time with Elsie!’
‘You’re probably right,’ Holly agreed, ‘but there’s just so much to be done over there. Elsie seems to have bewitched this publishing chap into thinking all his Christmases have come at once. And I have to confess, Taffs, some of her photos are – well – they’re pretty sensational.’ She paused for a moment. ‘But actually, even if it all comes to nothing, I still think it’s good for her to have a focus, don’t you? Rather than lying in bed and dwelling on her health?’
He nodded, obviously torn. ‘It’s a tricky balance. Medically, the rest might actually do her recovery more good . . .’
‘But psychologically?’ Holly countered. ‘There has to be something for keeping her engaged and sane.’
‘Well, I admire the sentiment, but this is Elsie we’re talking about,’ he teased her.
Holly swatted at him, as Billy, the newspaper delivery boy, performed a perfect skid to a halt beside them on his bike and thrust a bundle of tabloids and broadsheets into Taffy’s arms. ‘All yours, Dr Jones. And the missus there, looking rather fit in the Daily Mail, we all reckon. Plus, you know, Dr Channing in that little skirt – phwoar!’ He gave an adolescent chuckle and scooted off on his bike.
Holly and Taffy scrambled amongst the heap of papers to pull out the Daily Mail and there it was on the front-page banner. ‘The way forward – the Face of the NHS’ with a tiny headshot of Julia beside it. Page 14–15 promised further details.
Spreading out the pages on the front wall in the car park, Taffy and Holly were momentarily stunned. A huge picture from the Health in the Community launch party dominated the page – Holly, Taffy and Dan deeply engrossed in conversation, looking friendly, approachable and amused, while Julia hovered uncertainly at the edges, looking rather like the grown-up at the kids’ table. The publicity shot from her TV show gave an altogether different perspective on Julia Channing MD though, not least the sheer length and shapeliness of her legs.
The headline was – ‘This is The Face of The NHS. And this is their Model Practice. No bosses, just teamwork. Find out what it means to you and your healthcare.’
‘So they went ahead with their PR thing early, then,’ said Taffy drily.
As Holly read through the piece under her breath, she couldn’t help but think how ironic it was that, on the very day that more than five million Britons were reading all about their ‘very modern approach to medicine’ and their wonderful teamwork, two of those team members, not to mention the newly anointed Face of The NHS, were inside working out how to tell the team they were finished.
‘Right then,’ said Taffy, ‘we’d better go and spread the glad tidings.’
Grace looked up as they walked in the door, ‘The phone’s been ringing off the hook. Apparently we’re in all the papers this morning!’ She clocked the bundle in Taffy’s hand. ‘As you’ve already seen.’ She stood up and smoothed her hair behind her ears. ‘We’ve got ten minutes until the first patient – gather the troops.’
Within moments they were all assembled back around the kitchen table and Holly felt the first wave of caffeine jitters surge through her tired body – and she still had a full clinic to get through.
‘Right then,’ said Taffy, taking charge. ‘It looks like this story is everywhere. So, in the good news column, the Health in the Community Scheme has had a real shot in the arm and our communist approach to medicine has received mixed reviews.’
‘It’s not a communist approach – it’s teamwork,’ said Dan through gritted teeth.
‘Not . . .’ flourished Taffy,’ according to the Daily Mirror!’
Dan and Julia were deliberately avoiding each other’s gaze, but they both looked up at that little gem. ‘Seriously?’ Julia exclaimed. ‘I’m a communist now, am I? Perhaps they’d like to do a photo shoot of me in a bikini next to a sodding Trabant next?’
Taffy grinned, seemingly unfazed by the multitude of tensions in the room. ‘I wouldn’t say that in front of a journalist or a marketing executive, Jules. They might just think it’s a brilliant idea.’
Dan slammed his fist on the table. ‘Could you stop arsing about and keep your head in the game for just sixty seconds? We have a problem here. Actually a hundred bloody problems here, but let’s focus on the ones we can do something about.’ He glared at Julia then and she, to her credit, did not bite.
‘Let’s just remind ourselves too, that whatever may have been going on here for the last few days,’ Taffy interrupted sternly, ‘this is something we wanted. Publicity we knowingly and actively courted. Raising the profile of the Health in the Community programme? Getting the additional funding as a Model Practice? Starring in a TV show, anyone? Don’t go getting all hypocritical because it’s caught you on the hop and you don’t like your photo, alright?’
He shook the Telegraph’s less sensationalised piece at Dan by way of explanation. ‘This is fresh from our press release, that we wrote. You can’t ask for more than that. Okay, so the Sun seems to think we all live together as a “couple” in a commune, but that’s just media hype and people know it.’
Holly leaned forward, rummaging through the decimated papers for the Sun. ‘Are we really a couple?’ she laughed, hoping there was a photo to boot. That level of silliness took all the pressure off, as far as she was concerned.
Taffy and Dan just gri
nned, their momentary spat already forgotten. Julia was being remarkably quiet.
‘It’s alright for you to joke, but do you know what happens to people that the media put on a pedestal?’ she said eventually, her exhausted and measured tone making all of them stop in their tracks. ‘They pull you down, with whatever dirt they can find.’
Holly immediately felt flippant and gauche. Of course Julia’s media career would make her see things differently. Holly had just been relieved that their extra funding for new staff now seemed to be confirmed in black and white in a quote from the local Primary Care Trust and it might give them some leverage when it came to negotiating their deal. Well, also that she had her eyes open in the photographs they’d chosen. Take away the threat of further Milo-offspring coming out of the woodwork and she could almost convince herself that she was relatively relaxed about the whole thing.
Dan and Julia glowered at each other and Holly had that awful feeling when you know you’re out of the loop on something big. ‘Is there a particular skeleton you’re worried about, Jules?’ she asked gently, wondering – and not for the first time – whether getting back together with Dan hadn’t put the brakes on Julia’s personal growth. It had all looked so very promising at one point – and Holly had felt a real connection growing between them. She did not feel that this morning.
Out of nowhere, Julia burst into heaving, sobbing tears. It was so unexpected that they all froze. It was somewhere up there with Kate Middleton jumping on the table and doing the Can-Can, right on the scale of things nobody would have thought possible.
‘Errr,’ managed Taffy, the sight of female tears enough to throw him into complete disarray. ‘Shall I give you guys some space?’ he offered, the desperation to be released from the room writ large on his face.
‘No, it’s fine,’ wailed Julia. ‘I’ll be fine in a second.’ The tears continued to flow and Holly began to wonder whether there was about a decade’s worth just pent up and waiting for liberation. It seemed like an over-reaction to a slightly dodgy photo.
