Archaeologists find an older “new hospital” beneath the new hospital

During groundworks at the site of the new National University Hospital on Hringbraut, workers this week came upon ruins that were initially thought to date from the Settlement Age. On closer inspection, they turned out to be the foundations of a new hospital.

“We were very excited,” says an archaeologist at the site. “Then we found a sign saying: New hospital, opening within five years. It was in Danish.”

Beneath the ruins they found a third foundation, older still, along with a cost estimate for “a reasonable sum”. The estimate has since been updated to “an unreasonable sum”.

The idea of a new national hospital has been under discussion since long before most of the hospital's current staff were born. The first spade has gone into the ground so many times that the spade itself is now a museum piece.

Sigurlaug (81) was put on the waiting list for a hip operation the year the project was announced. “I was told I'd have it at the new hospital,” she says. “I was 43 at the time.”

The project manager says the work is on schedule. Asked which schedule he means, he replies: “The latest one. It's always met, because we write it afterwards.”

Three generations of the same family now work on the site. The grandfather poured the foundations, the son is doing the electrics, and the grandchild, aged six, has already been hired to cut the ribbon.

The hospital is expected to open “in the coming years”, the same timeframe that has been given from the start. A source within the project says this shows remarkable consistency.