Description

Now your town can have a full-size (32 x 48 studs x 2 storey high) hospital to deal with all the emergencies your police and firefighter minifigs bring in. As you can see in the pictures, this hospital was built in two sections: the older original building is on the left, with a projecting course between storeys and around the roof parapet, and decorative cones at the corners. This section houses the wards, operating room, emergency department, admissions dept and lab. At some time in the more recent past, the building became too small and an extension was built on the right. In a plainer and more modern style, this part of the building houses the ambulance, paramedic crew and dispatchers office on the ground floor, with a kitchen and cafeteria on the upper floor.

Here’s the front of the hospital, showing the access road to the ambulance garage and emergency entrance. Note the elevator machinery room on the roof at left, with opening skylights next to it: the main entrance is at the bottom left with lighting over the double doors. Over on the right hand side, you can see the communications antennas etc for the ambulance dispatchers on the right hand roof, along with the siren and a ventilator at the front. In the center, over the garage entrance, there’s a covered balcony outside the kitchen and cafeteria entrances.

The rear of the hospital shows vents, ducts and gratings on the lower floor, with windows above for the wards and cafeteria.

As always with Lions Gate Models kits, you get access to the interior of your model. The left and right roof sections, plus a small roof section over the kitchen, all lift off, the entire left side of the hospital is removeable (held on securely by four Technic pins), the upper left section lifts off the lower section, and the right upper section is removable.

Transform yourself into a minifig and follow me on a tour…

Inside, many details reward your close examination. Let’s take a tour, starting as we walk along the street outside the front facade…

First we pass the road entrance to the ambulance garage and the emergency dept. The garage has a tool rack and direct access from the emergency crew ready room, and over the entrance is a balcony.

The double emergency doors open to a wide hallway, dedicated emergency desk, emergency treatment room and operating room. Next along the street facade are signs (custom stickers) directing patients and visitors to the Emergency dept or Admissions. Following the arrow to Admissions, we reach the double main doors with the Hospital sign and security lighting overhead.

Let’s head inside through the main doors. We find ourselves in a waiting area complete with chairs, table and vending machine: opposite the seating is the Admissions office service window.

There’s space for two staff members in the Admissions office, with cash register, typewriter and filing shelves.

Past the vending mechine is the elevator to the upper floor, and past that again we follow signs to the X-Ray laboratory.

Look what’s included!

Inside the lab is a bed with the X-Ray machine overhead, and of course a screen for the operator to stand behind.

There’s also an ultrasound machine with its sensor on a cable, which can be pulled up to the bed when necessary. (Ever had an ultrasound? It’s weird. You get to see your insides working away on a monitor!)

As we come out of the lab and turn left, we pass the Emergency desk and see the emergency entrance in front of us. On our left is the operating room with its rolling table and anaesthetic equipment, shelves, sink and fluid stand. On our right is a smaller emergency treatment room with a stretcher and more equipment.

Let’s head back to the elevator and go upstairs. Coming out of the elevator on the upper floor, we find two wards.

On our left is a private ward with just one bed and a small washroom: on our right, a public ward with four beds and a larger washroom including a shower.

Leaving the wards, we head past the nursing station, with its refrigerated drug storage, night lighting and tape player, out of the door onto the balcony over the garage.

Here’s the door to the kitchen. We’ll pop our heads in to say hi to the cook but we won’t go in; it’s a small space but very efficient with fridge, sink, range, grill and a powerful range hood.

Straight ahead of us is the door to the cafeteria, where we can buy pizza at the counter.

We’ll head through the cafeteria now, and down the stairs to the emergency dispatcher’s office with its communications equipment. Through another door is the paramedics ready room, with chairs and tables for relaxing with a cup of coffee from the cafeteria, a desk to work at, and racks for special equipment kits in their cases.

The ambulance itself contains a stretcher, of course, as well as a radio to keep in contact with the dispatcher. Tiles inside the ambulance body let you slide the stretcher in and out easily, and custom stickers attach to both sides of the ambulance as well as the backs of the crew’s jackets.

Strictly speaking, only hospital maintenance staff are allowed up the ladder onto the roof, but we’ll take a quick trip up there while no-one’s looking. The ladder swings down from the ceiling of the upstairs hallway, allowing us to climb up, push open the skylights, and clamber out. The elevator machinery room door opens and inside are the large pulleys and cables and the top of the elevator car.

Oops, sounds like someone’s coming – better get down that ladder again!

Build your own Hospital

You’ll have great fun building this model, and if you have kids to build it with, so much the better!