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”.

Both the Government and HSE will now anxiously await to see if the board of Tallaght Hospital will take a similar stance to their counterparts in Crumlin.

Last night, a spokesperson for Tallaght Hospital said it would take a view on entering talks with the HSE about transferring to the Mater after a planned meeting with the Taoiseach and Ms Harney in the near future.

The controversy about the site has been brewing since last summer when the Government accepted the recommendation of the HSE that the new 380-bed facility should be located near its existing adult hospital in Dublin’s north inner city.

The HSE has also been forced to reject suggestions that the decision to locate the new hospital on a site at the Mater — in the heart of the Taoiseach’s constituency — was a political one.

Our Lady’s said it had taken its decision “reluctantly” not to engage any further with plans to relocate to the Mater site at a board meeting on Wednesday.

In a statement, Our Lady’s said it appreciated the HSE would be disappointed by its decision, but stressed that it was taken on the basis of “significant concerns” about what it considered was the inadequacy of the proposed location for the hospital.

Our Lady’s board also expressed concern that preliminary planning work had not involved either national or international paediatric experts.

Last year, both directors and staff at the hospital called on the Government to review its decision on the Mater site and suggested that the option of looking at building a new hospital on a greenfield site should be re-examined.

However, the chairman of Our Lady’s board, Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin said he did not attend Wednesday’s meeting and was unaware that such a decision was being taken.

Dr Martin said he was aware of the frustration felt by Our Lady’s staff on the issue, but hoped that dialogue could continue.

The National Children’s Hospital in Tallaght and Protestant church leaders have also criticised the choice of the Mater as the location for the new facility.

They have raised concerns about the adequacy of the proposed site as well as problems with access to its inner city location.