Our ailing children’s hospital is in urgent need of intensive care

IF you can tell a lot about a restaurant by the state of it’s toilets, then you can surely tell a lot about a nation by the state of its main children’s hospital.

Like everyone else I’ve followed the saga of the new children’s hospital for what’s seemed like decades now, and in the past was involved in reporting on it. I’ve attended there as a parent on a handful of occasions, luckily none of the visits involving too serious a medical reason.

My most recent visit there was this week. I arrived with my daughter in the late afternoon. It wasn’t a scheduled visit and we were headed for the Accident and Emergency Department. As we drove there I found myself thankful it was that time of day, because I was guessing that out patient clinics would be over. This would mean that we would get a space in the carpark, and not have to face a lengthy queue for it, or worse have to drive around the local roads to find a space.