London and Kursk

In the news from London I saw Queen Elisabeth, Tony Blair, some other politicians visiting hospitals and encouraging people. Does it make sense? Hospitals are working on top of their capacities. Hundreds of injured people are coming. Every doctor and nurse are on deck. And here comes the PM with numerous security people, retinue, photographers, reporters and TV crews. The head of the hospital is drawn away from work. These people crowd the already busy passages. What if there’s an emergency? Imagine – like in some ER show – a rescue crew is rushing to the operation room. Would they roughly push the queen aside?
There was a lot of fuss when Putin didn’t immediately rush to Murmansk when the news broke about Kursk catastrophe. That was viewed as an unspeakable act of callousness and indifference. In an interview right after that Putin explained that he simply didn’t want to hinder the work of the rescue staff. No matter how informal the appearance of the president (or any top politician) is it still draws away a lot of resources. Especially in situations when politicians couldn’t help and any second matters. I think he was right.