Zurich Children’s Hospital is transporting 65 children to a new location

Zurich Children’s Hospital made its big “move” from the old location to the new location on Saturday. 65 injured and seriously ill children were transported to the new Kispi in ambulances. A four-year-old girl put on her ballet costume especially for this purpose.

The Kispi was in the same location in Hottingen for over 150 years. “So this move into the new building is a day of goosebumps for all of us,” Kispi boss Georg Schäppi told the media.

6,000 moving boxes have already been transported in the past two months. The most important thing followed on Saturday, the 65 patients. Their trip was planned down to the minute, “according to the general staff,” Schäppi said. To ensure that no obstacle disrupted the plans, the police kept the road clear.

There are usually many more children in the Zurich children’s hospital. With advanced planning, for example during operations, the number of children was reduced as much as possible to ensure that as few of them had to be transported, Schäppi continued.

The 65 that were moved through Zurich with ambulance crews were 25 seriously injured and seriously ill children.

It doesn’t smell like a hospital

Saturday was also a special day for the children – but it was also full of hope. Get out of the old four-person room and into the one or two-person room that doesn’t look or smell like a hospital. A four-year-old girl put on a ballet dress and jewelry especially for the ride in the ambulance.

If possible, one parent was allowed to accompany the transport. Many parents were frustrated by their children’s “restriction”. When we saw the new, modern rooms, some people shed tears of relief.

The old location closed at 7:59 am

The emergency department in the new Kispi was also activated on Saturday. The old emergency in Hottingen closed at 7:59 am. At 8 in the morning, the new station in Zurich-Lengg opened and was ready to receive the first children and young people who were injured.

Construction for the new Kispi took six years and was designed by star Basel architects Herzog & de Meuron. However, the costs got completely out of control and eventually reached a staggering 761 million francs.

In April, the canton had to support Kispi with a financial injection of 35 million francs for this year and a loan of 50 million francs.

fn, sda