Making a hospital fit for a King and a Princess is no mean feat, especially when it comes to making the facility, usually used by members of the general public, sufficiently secure to host the Head of State and future Queen. King Charles is reported to be “doing well” after receiving treatment for an enlarged prostate and is expected to spend the night in the London Clinic private hospital.
Meanwhile, Princess Kate had abdominal surgery in the same hospital last week and remains safely ensconced there. King Charles paid her a visit to his daughter-in-law on Friday morning.
Despite all indications being that the respective treatments went smoothly as planned, a significant security operation was necessary to ensure the safety of both senior royals. Express.co.uk spoke to former Royal Protection Officer Simon Morgan to find out the steps taken to secure the hospital.
Mr Morgan, who now runs security firm Trojan Consultancy, told this website: “You’re looking at senior members of the royal family. They have 24/7 protection in terms of personal protection officers and they have 24/7 physical protection because they live in residences that are protected by the police, various security counter-measures and technical surveillance et cetera.
“So what you’ve got to consider is, how do you maintain that in an environment that ordinarily isn’t used to, firstly, being like that, bearing in mind this is a hospital.”
He explained: “Now there will be elements of the hospital, in terms of safeguarding, they will have a security process. So it’s not as if they haven’t got anything but you need to have a look at what’s sort of in place. That’s the first thing.
“But then effectively you are just moving the security bubble to a different venue. So, yes, it is a logistical scenario because you’re ultimately going from one very proven, known security site to one now that sort of isn’t to a certain extent. It isn’t proven, it isn’t known and you’ve got to look at its sort of nuances.
“Also you have to move officers around to do that, whilst maintain the integrity of the current site.
“It becomes an extension of the current protected sites that are in place. But the basics, the foundation level, ultimately will be exactly the same as what is in place for any other residence that a senior member of the Royal Family is going to be in.”
The former Royal Protection Officer added that unlike if “the US President” was being operated on, the London Clinic is not shut down just because the King and future Queen are being seen there.
Mr Morgan explained that, although the security system is sufficiently “robust” to meet any challenges that protection officers need to face, the hospital will run relatively normally while the royals are inside.
Prince William has been visiting Princess Kate in hospital every day following her surgery but the pair’s children are yet to visit her due to them being at school.
He was pictured last week arriving at the hospital, a day after the shock health announcement was made.
William has cleared his diary, cancelling official visits and meetings, and has not been mentioned in the Court Circular royal diary since Kate went into hospital.
The Princess of Wales is not expected to return to official engagements until after Easter but is thought to be carrying out some work from her hospital bed.
Meanwhile Queen Camilla issued an update on King Charles earlier today. She told reporters outside the hospital: “He’s doing fine, thank you.” Echoing this, a Palace insider also tells Express.co.uk that the King is “doing well” following the planned procedure.
