But when ACT Health started plans for a major redevelopment of the hospital's main foyer, it seems no-one at the auxiliary, a volunteer-led charity, was consulted before the plans were drawn up.

The lack of consultation led to two auxiliary committee members, secretary Ruth Morschel and minutes secretary Elaine Wise, resigning in frustration earlier this year after the auxiliary raised the issue with ACT Health in October.

Mrs Morschel and Wise said they had heard about the changes through a third party, but had to approach the health directorate before being given any specifics about the impacts on the auxiliary.

While both resigned from the executive committee in protest, they have remained as volunteers with the auxiliary.

The plans, The Canberra Times understands, would see the auxiliary shop's footprint cut and a back storage area, which houses retail stock and supplies for emergency packs given to emergency patients and their families, moved to a different area of the hospital, one floor down.

Mrs Morschel said the lack of consultation had caused "great distress" among auxiliary members, who were "extremely disappointed by the apparent lack of value attached to the services we provide".

"The 'take it or leave it' approach is extremely disrespectful to an organisation that has provided long-standing services for patients, visitors and staff and contributed millions of dollars to the hospital," she said.

"Surely the minister and senior staff can find the time to urgently reconsider what the auxiliary requires and, at a minimum, make available additional space on the ground floor, so that the fine work of this volunteer organisation can continue."

One of the auxiliary's chief concerns was the fate of the storage area, which under current plans would force a largely ageing volunteer workforce down a level in a lift or flight of stairs and along a busy hospital corridor to ferry supplies.

Mrs Wise said that while auxiliary members were concerned about the changes, the organisation "wants to work with ACT Health", to find a solution.

"I think (the development) is going to be great, we will have a new shop, a new foyer, but there are still issues to be addressed and we just want to have a positive conversation with them about it," she said.

"The prime motivation of all that we do is about the patients, the staff and the visitors, surely with a little more understanding, we can work through the issues."

Auxiliary president Trevor Sharkie said he was disappointed with the lack of consultation and the implications of the move were still unclear.

But he said the auxiliary ultimately decided it "agreed in principle" with redevelopment, but they had "some suggestions we want to make".

Mr Sharkie, Mrs Wise and Mrs Morschel all said they believed there could be benefits from the redevelopment, including a potential increase in foot traffic near the shop, and that the redevelopment could ultimately benefit hospital users and patients.

"It was a disappointment (moving the storage area), as it is a fair way away from the shop, but we've had meetings with ACT Health since October, and in those meetings, I would suggest that from what they said that they do respect the auxiliary and the work it's done," Mr Sharkie said.

A spokesman for Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris said that while it was "regrettable" the auxiliary were involved in the "very earliest stages", they had since been involved and the minister's office met with the auxiliary in February this year.

He said the operators of the hospital cafe, Zouki, had "presented an opportunity to refurbish the cafe" and the main foyer and ACT Health had been working with "a wide range of stakeholders on the redesign work".

"ACT Health and the Minister recognise the longstanding role and enormous contribution of the auxiliary to the hospital over four decades, not just through the work volunteers do in the shop and around the hospital, but also what the proceeds of shop contribute to the hospital," he said.