BAM criticises minister over comments on National Children's Hospital

The minister for health had questioned the timeframes provided by BAM as to the handover date for the National Children's Hospital.

National Children’s Hospital builder BAM privately criticised health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill over an interview with RTÉ in which she took aim at continuing delays to the project.

In a letter to the health minister dated April 29, BAM chief operating officer John Wilkinson said he was “disappointed” to hear Ms Carroll MacNeill’s comments about the builder during an interview on Prime Time.

“While differences of opinion in relation to areas such as programme and resourcing are entirely legitimate, it is unfortunate that your statements on BAM’s capability to deliver hospitals and healthcare facilities did not reflect our documented track record,” Mr Wilkinson wrote.

Ms Carroll MacNeill had questioned the timeframes provided by BAM as to the handover date.

“We do have a timeline. But, you know, is it going to be met? If you’ve experienced something 19 times, do you expect it to be different on the twentieth?,” she said.

Mr Wilkinson said BAM had an “extensive and well established history” of developing healthcare infrastructure, citing its work in Beaumont Hospital, St James' Hospital, Cork University Hospital, and Tallaght University Hospital.

“Such a record demonstrates BAM’s capability to work closely and collaboratively with the Department of Health and healthcare organisations to deliver projects of this complexity and importance elsewhere and, one might hope, be a catalyst for further reflection on the actual root of the problems on the NCHI project,” he wrote.

Mr Wilkinson said BAM had made a commercial decision not to bid for the new National Maternity Hospital project, but welcomed the fact that it would not have a body similar to the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board overseeing delivery.

The letter was provided to the Public Accounts Committee last week.

Other documents provided to PAC  include an update on progress at the hospital, showing a significant reduction in staffing levels as the project moves towards completion.

The average number of workers on site fell by 60% between March and August, from 583 to 233.

“BAM has stated that the resources are appropriate for a project nearing completion and this would be accurate were it the case that BAM was meeting its programme milestones and KPIs, but it is not,” the update reads.

A spokesperson for BAM said the programme for the hospital has always been “sufficiently resourced”.

“Due to the specialist nature of the commissioning work currently under way at this late stage, the necessary specialist commissioning resources are deployed as required,” they said.