A $1 billion Boston Children’s Hospital expansion plan has drawn opposition from some because it would be built over a beloved garden, but others question whether the expansion is necessary at all, according to an article on the Boston Globe website.

The pediatric hospital, with 404 inpatient beds and numerous outpatient clinics, wants to add 71 beds to its Longwood campus and an eight-floor outpatient center in Brookline. In addition, Children’s has proposed adding as many as 48 inpatient beds to its campus in Waltham.

Yet demand for children’s hospital care is declining both here and nationally, a trend supported by Children’s own data.

Some healthcare industry experts, executives at competing hospitals and activists trying to save the Prouty Garden say that a bigger Children’s would need to pull patients away from less-expensive providers, undercutting the state’s efforts to bring health spending under control, the article said. 

Read the article.