Hospital battle hides a big secret
    Catherine Ford

Using the concerned mother of sick children to promote a quick resolution to difficulties surrounding the relocation of the Alberta Children's Hospital was great public relations. Too bad about it being irrelevant.

A mother of twins, both with ongoing health problems, worried a public meeting last week focused less on the health of children and more on the traffic issues of the Calgary communities into which the new hospital will be  shoe-horned.

The implication was obvious: Such complaints threaten children's health.

The hospital is, she said, a crucial lifeline for her and her family.

Indeed, it is. And it still will be, regardless. The community issues of the new hospital isn't about limiting services to children.

But it suits the issue to obfuscate.

 This isn't just about traffic, although anyone living near the monster that within 10 years will be the University of Calgary and Foothills Medical Centre might consider selling now. Those communities, including the bucolic  Varsity Estates, have a future already written, and it isn't quiet and peaceful.
 Residential areas surrounding Calgary's scientific research area will become  little more than feeder dorms -- hives for the worker bees.

 The major problem in this development seems to be the lack of consultation   and public input into what is in reality a giant master plan. In what other city  could more than $500-million worth of "commercial" development be  focused on one small area, with so little public information
about the future impact?

 Where, indeed, is the overhead look at what we are creating?

The university-hospital area will be a giant industrial complex including a new Colonel Belcher hospital and seniors centre; the new children's hospital; a six-storey research complex at Foothills; an expanded Market Mall; and an  extended sporting complex and research facility around the Olympic Oval.

 That the "industry" is health, science, sports and academic research in no  way ameliorates the effect of such concentration on the surrounding district.

But it all has little to do with the comfort of the neighbourhood communities and their worries. It has little to do with the families of sick children who  may not have the money to take taxis or have access to a car, and who might  have to take public transit which doesn't deliver to the front door of this proposed hospital with dispatch and convenience.

 In the end, it's all about money. Who has it. Who gets it. Not the few dollars  concerned citizens donate to fundraising drives, but the millions in grants and  funding that accrue to serious research.

 To get it, this city must overlook all concerns but concentration.

The children's hospital is being located on the university endowment lands for the simple reason it fits into the jigsaw that is the University of Calgary's  desire to be a top-notch research facility, and the money such a designation  brings in.

 The children's hospital is just a piece of the puzzle. Other pieces -- maybe corners that are always the easiest first step -- include shutting and selling both the Holy Cross and the Grace, and blasting the General. Foothills is left with no competition for research money, status or medical personnel.

 This overall plan isn't about sick kids. It's about money. That one can say  this without cynicism is tribute to the good works such money will accomplish. Who could argue with a vision of the best possible care and treatment for children? Who would argue with research into the killing  diseases that too often rob children of their lives?

 The new hospital is a miracle of public relations, a concerted effort to mask the reasons for its location by couching conversations in terms of convenience and service to children.

 If an institution was designed for the convenience of and service to its disparate clients, it would be located in the downtown core where every  public service has its hub, where transit lines and the LRT
intersect, where the focus of the city's heart is. But this isn't designed for the convenience of
 the clients, it's designed for the convenience of the workers -- the doctorsand health professionals; research scientists and the university. 

The needs of  its tiny patients are no more important in its location than the subjects of any other research project are to the scientist putting them under the microscope.

 Is this inherently wrong? No. Not as long as everybody understands exactly  what's going on. That the new children's hospital will serve a useful purpose is not in question. But don't be fooled. It's not about space and convenience.

It's about money.

 Catherine Ford can be reached by e-mail at
fordc@theherald.southam.ca.
 Read previous columns at www.calgaryherald.com/columnists