Hospital library images

No, not images of a hospital library. Images of generic hospital scenes for use in news reports about the emergency services when individual people, such as accident victims, aren't being identified. (Examples: one, two, three, four, five.)
I thought of doing this a few weeks ago but never got around to it. Then this week a friend was going for a check-up at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. I was going with her and I knew I'd be hanging around for a couple of hours, so I called the hospital and asked for permission to go round taking photos. I already knew the rules, which are just common sense: Don't get in anyone's way, clear off if someone tells you to, and no pictures of patients. Not a problem. A very helpful communications officer (thanks Erin!) said she'd clear it with security for me to do exterior photos of the hospital, and she'd accompany me around some inside areas.

The shoot only presented one real challenge, and it was nothing major: People being polite! It's the nature of the beast with these photos that you want people to walk across the frame, because it helps to convey activity. But people constantly stopped to wait for me to finish the shot, and I couldn't ask them to walk through the shot because that would be a set-up, not ethically acceptable for photos that may be presented as factual. Still I got most of the shots I wanted.

I'd have liked to do some illustrative shots on a ward or in an operating theatre but one step at a time. The hospital was being very co-operative after just two hours notice so I didn't want to ask for anything beyond what had been offered.