HSE backtracks on plan to replace hospital unit

HSE PLANS to replace an outdated child intensive care unit described in a report as “a potential risk to patient safety” could be scrapped due to budget cutbacks.

The Irish Examiner has learned that HSE officials have written to Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin in recent days seeking to significantly downgrade plans to revamp the unit.

Under a HSE-backed report commissioned from Deloitte and Touche at the start of the year, an existing 13-bed intensive care unit at Crumlin Hospital, which had been in place since the 1950s, was to be replaced as a matter of urgency.

Among concerns the report raised about the unit, which is used to treat critically ill children, were that the facility had inadequate infection control standards, poor infrastructure and was so outdated it was “a potential risk to patient safety”.

Due to the report’s findings, the HSE-backed document warned that the unit should be replaced as a matter of urgency by a new 22-bed intensive care unit to ensure the safety of critically ill children.

The document was passed by the HSE Board in spring, with officials insisting the move would be immune from any spending cuts.

However, despite the plans, in mid-August the hospital is understood to have been contacted by the HSE’s chief architect, who requested that the new 22-bed plans should include the existing 13-bed unit.

While hospital management rejected the change of plan, on Friday they received a second letter from Brian Gilroy, head of Estates in the HSE, recommending that due to economic constraints report plan may no longer be feasible.

While no decision has been made, the latest letter has suggested that the development of nine new intensive care beds may be adequate – contradicting the HSE-commissioned report’s safety recommendation.

Dr Paul Oslizlok, consultant cardiologist at Crumlin Hospital and president of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, said: “Surely it is blindingly obvious that in medical, moral and even financial terms, the right thing to do is to equip us to do our job. Why get outside consultant reports if you are not prepared to follow their recommendations,” he added.

A HSE spokesperson said the executive is working with the hospital “to progress a capital build to improve the facilities available for patients” before the new National Paediatric Hospital is opened in 2014.