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 A spokesman for the HSE said the report would not be published until June or July.