Why would you build a smaller hospital

to replace one which is already too small?

That's a serious question. This has already been done once - and now they are planning to do it again. 

The main hospital in the CBD was replaced by another several years ago. It was one of those "budget blow-out" affairs that paid homage to a  political party but does not do the job it is supposed to do. The main entrance is the size of a cathedral - if not bigger - and serves no purpose except confusion. There is no place for the staff meet, no place for them to store personal belongings, no place for them to eat and limited places for the lucky few to park. There are no wards. Each room is individual and has its own en-suite facilities which might sound good but actually means less monitoring of all but the sickest patients. The meals are delivered by robot.

The Senior Cat spent several nights in there almost three years ago. I've been told that the food has improved by then but a friend who was in there for five nights not so long back has said that, had it not been for her family, she would not have eaten because she couldn't reach her food. 

"Individual rooms are lovely if you are ill Cat but they need to be combined with the level of care that actually allows you to get better."

I have to agree. 

It is therefore with alarm that I read about the plans for the new women's and children's hospital in the CBD. I most certainly support the old one being replaced. It is a rabbit warren. A late friend of mine actually lived in the hospital for a number of years. There was nowhere else for her to go. Every morning the staff would help her into her electric wheelchair and she would spend her days going all over the hospital and sitting with anxious parents and frightened children, taking messages to other places as she went. She knew the building inside out and there were few places she had not managed to find a way to access. All the same she knew it could be improved. More than one simple ramp was put in at her insistence.

A new hospital was not on the horizon in her time but I think she would have a thing or two to say about the plans. I can hear her now, "It's smaller? Why? It needs to be bigger!"

M... would not have been interested in individual rooms with en-suite facilities for anyone other than those children who were critically ill. She would have found the downsizing of that area unbelievable. 

M... would have been looking for a school within the building, more than one play area, rooms for meetings, staff facilities, parent facilities, therapy areas and much more. Her thoughts would have been on well lit spaces with access to "outside" and "fresh air". 

Children have very different needs from adults when it comes to hospital facilities. M... knew that. Most parents would know that too even if they cannot always put it into words. 

I once went on a visit to one of the best known children's hospitals, Great Ormond Street in London. The buildings were old even then but it was still catering for patients in a way which would have met the approval of M....  There were many very sick children there, often with life threatening conditions. Despite that many of them were out of bed. The older children were doing school work - the activity the group I was with had gone to see. The younger children were, as far as possible, actively engaged in other activities. We saw children who were too ill to be involved in any group activity. There were volunteers reading to some of them or playing simple games. Yes, there was tragedy there but it was not a place of despair, rather of hope. I doubt the staff at that time would have been interested in the provision of individual rooms except for the most critically ill. 

It is much more likely that they would have laughed, as we did, at the young doctor who crawled out from underneath one of the beds and, giving us a wry smile, told us, "First catch your patient."