BAM rejects claim it is 'holding State to ransom' over National Children's Hospital
Builder BAM has strongly rejected assertions that it is “holding the State to ransom” over the new National Children’s Hospital, stating the claim by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly as having “no basis in fact”.
Mr Donnelly wrote to coalition leaders on Friday to outline the further delays to the National Children’s Hospital, with an expectation now that it will not be completed until the middle of next year.
A further six months of commissioning work on the 380-bed hospital will likely push the opening date beyond into 2026.
Mr Donnelly’s letter sets out that the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) has flagged that the delays are caused by BAM offering up rooms as complete when they are not, as well as the contractor being unwilling to resource the project appropriately.
It adds that 3,000 rooms have been offered to the board as complete, but that they have not been done to an acceptable standard.
However, in response, a spokesperson for BAM strongly hit out at Mr Donnelly, describing the letter as misleading, ill-informed, and with incorrect allegations against the developer.
BAM denied Mr Donnelly’s claim that the company is trying to “extract as much money from the Irish taxpayer as possible”.
The developer insists that delays to the project are due to the high level of design changes sought by the board, citing an independent conciliator who agreed that these changes were delaying the construction.
In particular, it highlighted that there have been 23,283 revised design drawings submitted to BAM by the board since work began in January 2019.
It also rejected claims that the project is understaffed, saying that it is resourced at around 50% above the level anticipated at this stage.
The contractor added that decisions by independent conciliators have extended the completion date of the hospital by 16 months, while adding that the project is now more than 93% complete.
The Department of Health has challenged this, saying that the largest source of design changes has been led by BAM.
“This Government has been very clear that no further budget increases will be sanctioned,” a department spokesperson confirmed.
The chief executive of the HSE, Bernard Gloster, told RTÉ Radio that he was “exceptionally concerned” about the further delays to the project.
“For every day this hospital isn’t open, the people of Ireland are being denied the opportunity to access probably one of the best healthcare facilities in the world when it does open,” Mr Gloster said.
The HSE chief said that there is a requirement for BAM and the board to agree on a compliant programme of works, meaning that an exact date must be provided for when the hospital will be completed.
“Right now, today, we do not have a compliant programme of completion and that’s of significant concern to me,” Mr Gloster added.
