Plans for children’s hospital hit by major setback

THE Government’s plans to establish a state-of-the-art national children’s hospital on a new site at Dublin’s Mater Hospital has received a major setback with the decision of Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin not to participate in its development.

The viability of plans by the Health Service Executive to centralise paediatric services — currently provided by Our Lady’s, the National Children’s Hospital, Tallaght and Temple Street Children’s Hospital — in one location is now in doubt following the rejection by the country’s largest children’s hospital of a move to the Mater.

However, Health Minister Mary Harney last night insisted that the project would go ahead, while the HSE said it found the position taken by Our Lady’s as “difficult to understand”.