The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7223 p670
9 November 2002

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Pharmacist opens new trauma unit

The former chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, Dr Alan Smith, FRPharmS, officially opened a new trauma unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford last month.

The new £8.5m unit, which expects to see around 22,000 outpatients and 3,500 inpatients a year, has wards on two levels, an outpatient department, a day surgery unit, physiotherapy and occupational therapy areas, clinic rooms and offices. The hospital's fracture clinic will also move into the new building. Dr Smith spent around six months in the hospital's former trauma unit after a serious riding accident in August 2000. Having suffered a fracture of the pelvis, he spent six-and-a-half weeks in intensive care and remained in the unit until March 2001.

His wife Sally told The Journal that the trauma unit had been the "heart and soul of his recovery" and that he had become something of a good luck symbol for the new unit, taking part in its fundraising activities.