St James will delay maternity ward: board
Temple St Hospital’s board of directors made the claim yesterday after holding an emergency meeting to discuss the hidden implications of the move.
Speaking after Tuesday’s confirmation by Health Minister James Reilly that the facility will be built at St James’s Hospital by 2017 or 2018, the Temple St board again hit out at the decision not to re-select its favoured Mater location.
The board said it was happy a decision had finally been made, 19 years after a new national children’s hospital was mooted, and that its staff will work to ensure the planned facility reaches the standards expected.
However, a spokeswoman said the group is concerned about the lack of details or timeline for a linked maternity hospital to go with the site. Specifically, she said the unclear nature of the plan may spell the end of the long-hoped for tri-location of child, maternity, and adult services on one campus — an issue considered key to why a national children’s hospital is needed.
“Following an emergency meeting of the Temple St’s board of directors, the board is taking this opportunity to re-affirm its disappointment that the Mater site, as originally selected, has not been re-selected as the site for the national children’s hospital,” she said.
“The board is pleased a decision has finally been made regarding the site of the children’s hospital.
“[However, it] expresses particular concern regarding the lack of a guarantee that a maternity hospital will be built at the same time as the children’s hospital and that the original objective to offer a truly tri-located site, representing best international practice, will not be achieved.”
The criticism is not un-expected as Temple St has consistently held the view that the Mater should have continued as the chosen site location.
When a national children’s hospital development was first suggested by the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland in 1993, Temple St was predicted to merge entirely with the Mater complex.
Meanwhile, a joint letter to Dr Reilly from all three children’s hospitals has confirmed the facilities are committed to the project — but stressed “tri-location” must take place.
It was signed by the medical board chairs of Temple St and Crumlin; the paediatrics medical board chair of Tallaght; the Dublin paediatrics hospitals group’s clinical director; and the clinical lead of the HSE’s national paediatrics programme.
It said: “We value the co- location of the children’s hospital with a major adult teaching hospital and urge the minister to proceed without delay on plans to build a maternity hospital on this site.
“The three children’s hospitals currently work together on a daily basis to provide the best care for children.
“We are committed to becoming a single service long before the national paediatric hospital is built.”
