Harney reveals children’s care centre plans

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney has pre-empted the recommendations of a major report on the proposed new national children’s hospital by announcing plans for a major children’s care centre close to her constituency.

Yesterday the Health Service Executive (HSE) declined to comment on the minister’s detailed outline of plans for the new centre at Tallaght Hospital, because the report recommending the care centre has yet to be published.

Consultants commissioned by the HSE are currently finalising a report which will act as a blueprint for the manner in which a new National Tertiary Paediatric Hospital (NTPH) is developed. The report, by healthcare delivery specialists RKW, contains a sub-report on ambulatory care, details of which Minister Harney outlined yesterday. A spokesman for the HSE said the report would not be published until June or July.

Yesterday Ms Harney said the new ambulatory care centre at Tallaght would mean a 45% increase in care services for children and will include seven assessment bays and two new theatres. Sited in a new purpose-built unit at Tallaght, it will consist of an urgent care centre providing for up to 48,000 urgent care attendances, 15,000 more than are currently provided in the National Children’s Hospital in Tallaght, and will be open seven days a week from 8am until midnight.

A major expansion in outpatient clinic provision is also proposed providing 41,000 to 57,000 appointments. Currently child appointments total 30,000.

The scope of the new centre confirms fears expressed by the board of directors at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin last week that the development brief for the NTPH had altered significantly since the original proposals. The original proposals contained no mention of ambulatory care centres. Crumlin is opposed to the development of the NTPH on the Mater Hospital campus, the site which has been selected. Yesterday Dr Pat O’Doherty, a member of the Crumlin board, said they were “very surprised” at the minister’s announcement ahead of publication of the RKW report.

Fine Gael Seanad Leader and Dublin South West Candidate, Brian Hayes described Ms Harney’s announcement “as a pre-election gimmick”.

“It is by no means clear where the HSE is in all this since the conclusions of the consultancy, RKW, engaged by the HSE to assess the scope and location of ambulatory care centres like the one the minister is announcing have not been made public,” he said.