“I just hope that there can be areas to relax and have lunch.”

Registered nurse Kirsten Hyland seems happily surprised to hear that work is being done to develop the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre (QEIIMC) area.

“I mean, the children’s hospital was a pretty big change, but I didn’t know there was still work going on,” she says.

Kirsten eyes up the café at the bottom of the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. It is her lunch break and she has spent the first five minutes of her well-deserved break walking through the campus.

“I’m very much looking forward to when they open the [retail] area between the carpark and the children’s hospital, it’s just a bit of a walk to come down here for us.”

To get to her favourite coffee shop, Kirsten has to take a relatively long-winded route in and out of the access ways between the numerous buildings that make up the Medical Centre.

“I’m looking forward to it being a bit closer for us,” she says, “and I hope there’s some picnic tables so nursing staff have more areas to go down to for lunch because my ward has no windows and it’s cold, so I’m looking forward to that area just being outside and friendly.”

When asked what her ideal QEIIMC future would look like, Kirsten didn’t hesitate to bring up her wishes for better transportation.

“A train! Or more useable cycle pathways in and out of the QEIIMC area. I leave a cycle path about a kilometre out and then ride along no cycle paths on my last kilometre approach to the hospital. I have to dodge taxis and buses and there really should be a dedicated cycle path as well.”

To Kirsten this seems to be a logical next step for the Medical Centre. A number of her colleagues also cycle into work, so a cycle path network “just makes sense.”

“It’s not an easy job to keep everyone happy,” she says, “but I just hope that there can be areas to relax and have lunch!”

The ‘My QEIIMC Future’ series celebrates the people of QEIIMC and their aspirations for the future of the Campus. If you’ve got a story about working at or visiting QEIIMC, we’d love to hear it. Please get in touch to arrange an interview.