National Children's Hospital board to give 'guidance' on its completion date this week

The board tasked with delivering the new National Children’s Hospital will 'provide guidance' on the timeline for the delivery of the long-awaited facility later this week. Picture: Colin Keegan

The board tasked with delivering the new National Children’s Hospital will “provide guidance” on the timeline for the delivery of the long-awaited facility later this week.

However, it is not releasing the minutes of special board meetings held over the summer for “commercially sensitive reasons”, as the final completion date for the hospital remains uncertain.

Contractors Bam submitted a detailed revised plan outlining its completion schedule on July 18. The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) allowed this to be assessed by an independent body, and said it could take up to three months to complete.

A Department of Health spokesperson said last month that the programme gives details on how Bam “proposes to complete the final approximately 10% of this hospital and achieve certainty on a substantial completion date". Construction and equipping is “over 90% complete against contract value”, the spokesperson said.

Over the summer, there was a war of words between the NPHDB and Bam about progress at the hospital. The board claimed that Bam was “not providing sufficient resources to deliver the hospital” while Bam said it categorically rejected any claims of underperformance.

“Any suggestion that BAM is deliberately not committing adequate resources to the project or is in any way slowing down delivery of the hospital is untrue,” it said.

According to minutes of the board meeting held on July 12, the main contractor had yet to deliver its timeline and plan for completion of the project at this date which “made progress difficult to measure”.

Regarding an update from its CQV sub-committee – which would help ensure all facilities and equipment are installed properly and meet the design requirements – the board discussed a number of “technical and quality issues on-site”.

“There is some delay in these issues being addressed,” the minutes state. “It was added that there are examples of quality finishes on site, which indicates that the required standard is achievable.” 

It said: “It was advised that, from an onsite walk-through, there appeared to be a fragmented and non-sequential approach being taken to the work by the limited number of personnel on-site.” 

The minutes added that the board discussed options being considered in relation to the remedial work on the operating theatres and how to “mitigate the impact on the project”. 

Once the construction of the hospital is complete, it will be handed over to Children’s Health Ireland for commissioning and this process is expected to last at least six months.

So-called “special” board meetings also took place on July 7, August 4 and August 28 according to the NPHDB but said these would not be released due to “commercially sensitive reasons”.

In a statement, the NPHDB said that the latest programme delivered by Bam is subject to review by the Employer’s Representative, the independent body assigned to the task, to determine whether or not the programme is compliant with contractual requirements.

“The NPHDB is presenting to the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday and will be providing guidance to its members on the anticipated timeline."

Once the construction of the hospital is complete, it will be handed over to Children’s Health Ireland for commissioning and this process is expected to last at least six months. It’s expected the final cost for the hospital will pass €2bn by the project’s completion.