Mater site was picked ‘on both financial and clinical grounds’

THE decision to choose the Mater site in city centre of Dublin was made on both financial and clinical grounds, the Government said yesterday.

In its clinical analysis, the independent review team featured pro bono input from children’s hospital chief executives from around the world: Dr James Mandell, Children’s Hospital Boston, Dr James Shmerling of the Children’s Hospital in Colorado, Prof Peter Steer of Children’s Health Services, Queensland, and Dr Jane Collins of Great Ormond St in London.

In the words of Health Minister Dr James Reilly yesterday, these experts concluded that the Mater site offered a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to have a co-located adult and children’s hospital set-up, with the possibility of tri-location, were a maternity hospital to be added to the same campus.

The clinical analysis, published yesterday under the title National Paediatric Hospital Independent Review, outlines why those international experts, and others, finally ruled that the Mater site was the best among all the contenders.

The executive summary states: “The clinical review group unanimously and unequivocally recommends the immediate implementation of plans to consolidate the current Dublin inpatient acute care paediatric units into a single National Paediatric Hospital on the Mater site.”

It stresses that the review team believe any further delay or change in plans would impair the delivery of high quality care to children, although it adds that there is “an urgent need to review certain aspects of the programme”. Architect John Cooper, a member of the team, said this was common in such large scale projects.

Principally, the review team concluded that:

* Co-location of the NPH with an adult hospital was advantageous, with the possibility of added maternity and neonatal services on site.

* While a 45% increase in existing hospital attendances at the nearby Temple St hospital is expected due to the new hospital, there is no information to suggest access is a concern, while safe and secure parking will be provided.

* The majority of paediatric attendances at emergency departments take place after morning peak traffic periods.

* Good public transport links and its high take-up by staff was an advantage for the Mater site.

* A helipad on the roof of the adult hospital should allow helicopter access.

* Research and education from the three Dublin paediatric hospitals could be pooled at the NPH, alongside university expertise.

* The clinical review team said some elements of design need to be reviewed, particularly the emergency department, radiology adjacencies, and patient flows, especially to operating theatres and the paediatric intensive care unit. However, it is unclear if these reviews will take place and any review could delay the project by up to six months.

* There is no notional difference in the costs of constructing the National Paediatric Hospital on the Mater site, compared with a number of notional alternative sites.

* No concrete alternatives to the Mater site were proposed, the co-locating of tertiary adult and maternity hospitals is essential to an excellent paediatric service which could in the end be a destination point for children outside of Ireland for specialised care.

* The reality is that no perfect site is available, and consequently the review team considered those options that are viable and achievable.

* www.dohc.ie