I like the ward I’m in in Southampton Hospital. Piam Brown, it’s called. The staff are all friendly and nice; and while the ward could do with an expansion (i.e. more rooms – it’s always completely full), it’s generally a great place to have treatment (if you have to have treatment :P).

It’s even got an education room, which has two computers and stuff. Internet access and all that. It even has a wireless network. “Great!” you may think, “all the patients and parents and people will be able to use the interweb!”

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

They offer a wireless network, but only the laptops that they loan out (they have 4 for people to borrow) can access them. They just don’t tell anyone else the passkey.

What is the point in that?

It’s like “Oh yeah, we have this wireless network…..but no, you can’t use it.” So it’s just sitting there broadcasting the intertubes, but no-one can use it because no-one knows the passkey.

The IT guy (if he exists) is constantly “unavailable” (i.e. sitting on his arse eating pie and drinking coffee) so I can’t complain or anything. It pisses me off that every time I mention it to anyone I get “I don’t know” from the nurses, “forget it” from my parents and “yeah, only our laptops can use the wireless network” from the teacher, who’s the only person around that even knows what a wireless network is.

What annoys me most is not the actual problem, but the cause. I think it’s almost certainly more political than technical – the reason I can’t access the internet is red tape, and that is more than slightly annoying.