Campaigners hit out at removal of paediatric services

Parents and children in the Tallaght area will be the real victims of a political decision to relocate national paediatric services to the Taoiseach’s constituency, it was claimed today.

A campaign has been launched by the Tallaght Hospital Action Committee and the Mayor of South Dublin County Council, Cllr Eamon Maloney to protect services for children at Tallaght Hospital.

The Government has decided that the new National Children’s Hospital is to be based on the campus of the Mater Hospital on Dublin’s northside in Mr Ahern’s Dublin Central constituency.

Speaking at the launch of today’s campaign – ’Children’s Hospital Tallaght - Keep it Open’ – Labour leader and local TD Pat Rabbitte said: “The Government decision to relocate all paediatric services to the Taoiseach’s northside constituency is unwise and will impose hardship on parents.

“It has no regard for the travel and congestion implications of concentrating a single National Children’s Hospital on a northside site.”

Mr Rabbitte claimed that the decision had been made by the Taoiseach six months before Minister for Health Mary Harney assured the Labour leader in the Dáil that a location had not been finalised.

The Dublin South West TD said he was one of many people who campaigned for 15 years for a hospital for the Tallaght region.

“In times of more straitened resources the original plan for the Adelaide/Tallaght Hospital was never quite implemented. However any Government decision that would remove paediatrics from Tallaght would run the risk of downgrading the hospital that we do have.

“In addition there is a large population of children in this region. At a minimum the sensible decision is to locate the National Children’s Hospital in two campuses – one northside and one southside.”

Mr Rabbitte called on wider support for the campaign because there was widespread concern about this Government decision and about the manner in which it was made, he said.