this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2026
292 points (99.7% liked)
Mildly Interesting
26079 readers
502 users here now
This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.
This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?
Just post some stuff and don't spam.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The stairway stays. The elevator could be built in the "hole"
Elevators need a decent amount of surrounding space for cabling and for the counterweight. That all needs to be completely touch-proofed so people don't lose hands.
The running rails etc. also have structural rigidity requirements. Bolting straight onto concrete slab works best and there's not enough concrete here.
Fire stairwells often can't have anything put on them that could risk starting a fire, elevators included.
I'm no elevatorologist so soneone can correct me, but don't elevators need a lot of surrounding machinery in order to operate? Like, there needs to be weights and pulleys and all that. I image there would not be enough room for both that and the stairs.
l am surprised that the hospital, being halfway closed because of non-profitability anyway, had enough funds left somewhere to even install the nets.
A new elevator would probably have cost more than the whole building complex is worth by now...
Ugh. I hate how that idea has worked its way into the collective consciousness.
Healthcare is one of the cases where the market can’t work even in theory. There’s no upper limit to what people will spend, as a percentage of their net worth, to keep a child alive.
It shouldn’t even be a conversation. Just “nope, hospitals cannot be profitable, they are a social good, we fund them as a society” end of fucking discussion.
l live in Germany, a country with universal healthcare, so basically we do exactly that.
So perhaps "profitability" is the wrong word here.
But funds are still limited, and if the authorities determine that the money is used less efficient in one place than in another, they will consolidate and close the first place (that's happening for the hospital in the picture).
We have reached, or even passed the limits of that aproach, though.
Doctors and hospitals have to be realistically reachable for people and not a 100km away after all...