Parents fear hospital row may delay plans

PARENTS who have spent the past five years campaigning for a new national children’s hospital are worried that the latest row over the location of the facility will delay the development even further.

Two Dublin hospitals have now declared that they will not be co-operating with the Government’s plans to locate the new hospital on a site at the Mater Hospital in Dublin.

Both Tallaght Hospital and Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin said they would not be participating in the development of the new 380-bed facility at the Mater.

The New Crumlin Hospital Group, which represents around 6,000 parents with children attending Crumlin and the country’s other children’s hospitals said they just wanted the development to move on as quickly as possible.

Chairwoman of the Group, Linda Dillon, said its only remit since it was established in February 2002 has been to see a new hospital built in the interests of all sick children in Ireland, and it had taken long enough to establish this need.

“All of the sides involved in the current debate will eventually have to get back together, move on and produce the hospital, and the sooner the better,” she stressed.

The group is now concerned that plans for the development of the hospital could be delayed even further as the row over its location rumbles on.

A spokesman for the Health Service Executive (HSE) said the McKinsey Report published last February had outlined what was best for sick children and the HSE was committed to advancing that.

He also said that Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children withdrew its co-operation just after the health authority wrote to hospitals asking for their input into the design of the new children’s hospital.

Ms Dillon said that members of the lobby group were all parents of seriously ill children.

“We do not care where the hospital is built and feel enough time has been spent debating the issue. While real concerns have to be addressed, at the end of the day a decision has to be taken,” she stressed.

“The decision will not be the right one for everybody but foremost in all our minds should be what is right for the children and their families.”

The board of Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children is to meet tomorrow week to discuss the new hospital. It is in favour of establishing a state-of-the-art hospital but not on a site at the Mater, which it considers to be inadequate.

Yesterday, the chair of the board of management at Tallaght Hospital, Alan Gillis, said Tallaght was now proposing building the new children’s hospital on two sites — one at Tallaght and the other at the Mater.

Mr Gillis said he had sought an early meeting with the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern and the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, to discuss the issue further.

“Our board feels very strongly that unless the model is changed, we are not co-operating. We are adamant that Tallaght has to be involved in this,” he said.