Report raises doubts over CHI's ability to move to new National Children's Hospital

The report also mentions the ongoing delays to the NCH’s completion date — now expected to move into mid-2025 — impacting on CHI’s ability to plan the commissioning of the hospital.

“It is critical that a revised planning date is agreed and communicated to implementation teams so that they can plan their work in an orderly way,” it says.

On the overall clinical organisation, the report says that there are differing cultures within the three CHI hospitals, which does provide a “perfect opportunity” to align the organisations and improve care within the new hospital.

However, it says there will need to be “sufficient recognition and attention” before the move takes place.

The report also sets out issues within CHI, including the lack of permanent senior management at the hospital group. In particular, it says the lack of a permanent CEO leaves a “very high risk to the overall programme”.

It also sets out that the top leadership are only spending between 10%/20% of their time on preparation to move to the NCH, while 80%/90% of their time is focused on day-to-day operations of CHI hospitals.

Clinical leadership within CHI is also focused on dealing with the day-to-day patient care, rather than the commissioning work.

“Capacity needs to be created to allow sufficient clinical input into the commissioning and transformation process as ultimately clinical sign-off will be required before the new hospital can open to patients,” the report adds.

The KPMG report sets out that a number of leadership figures are planning to leave CHI in the near future, pointing to the “high level of pressure”, as well as the risk of burn-out.

The report, provided to CHI in April, also criticised the project management of the commissioning process, describing it as “very weak” for its size. The report comes as further delays to the National Children’s Hospital are now expected, with the project now unlikely to open until 2026.

Builder BAM has since set out a completion date of June 2025, with between six and nine months of commissioning work then expected before the hospital can open.