Consultants call for children’s hospital to be linked to maternity site

More than 40 consultants have called for the long-delayed national children’s hospital — set to be based at St James’s — to be directly linked to a leading maternity site.

A letter with the signatures, including that of former Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association president Dr Paul Oslizlok, said the move is needed to protect potentially vulnerable patients.

According to the medics, all of whom work at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, there is a particular risk to newborns if the connection is not made as part of the development of the new facility.

The letter read: “High-risk babies from throughout Ireland, who will require emergency medical care at the national children’s hospital following their birth, due to problems associated with pregnancy scanning, ought to be electively delivered at an adjoining maternity hospital.

“They can then be transferred promptly and directly to the specialist diagnostic and intensive care units of the national children’s hospital, and avoid the additional risks associated with ambulance transfer.”

The consultants said “95%” of patient transfers in Dublin’s maternity hospitals involve this type of newborn, with others too sick to even make the journey. As such, they have called for the facility “to be physically attached to the Coombe hospital by a short link corridor”.

They said that “with this arrangement, the close proximity to St James’s would comply with the McKinsey recommendations”. “In anticipation of the long-awaited decision regarding the location of the new national children’s hospital, we sincerely hope our concerns are given due consideration,” it read.

The comment came after a week in which a leaked copy of the Dolphin report, which is attempting to force a decision on the national children’s hospital site saga, said St James’s will be the choice.

The leaked copy, obtained by RTÉ News, was due to be released last week but has been delayed until later this month by Health Minister Dr James Reilly. Tánaiste and Labour leader Eamon Gilmore has denied claims he is seeking further advice separate from the Dolphin report and Dr Reilly on where the facility should be based.

Meanwhile, the chair of the Mater Hospital’s medical board has warned the Government it is effectively writing off €70m-worth of work if it does not choose his facility as the site. Professor Brendan Kinsley said €30m was spent by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board; €23m on access/other services; and a further €16m on the planned movement of the existing Temple Street hospital.

He said the Mater has been chosen twice by previous reviews. These were dogged by political controversy and ultimately led to An Bord Pleanála rejecting the proposed site on planning grounds.

Prof Kinsley said he did not understand why the “tri-location” of child, maternity, and adult hospitals which are part of the Mater plan appear to have been rejected.