Children's hospital on track for summer completion with €2.24bn price tag

The hospital is not expected to start receiving patients until spring 2026

National Children's Hospital: Construction is now at a finishing stage, with the installation of fixed medical equipment and integrated building commissioning well under way.

The new National Children's Hospital is on track for "substantial" completion this summer, with a price tag of more than €2bn.

In the latest update on the hospital's construction saga, the Department of Health said the total approved budget for the capital project was now circa €2.24bn.

Of this, €1.88bn is for construction projects and €360m for the integration and commissioning programme and ICT/electronic health records.

Construction is now at a finishing stage, with the installation of fixed medical equipment and integrated building commissioning well under way.

In a briefing to new Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, the department said Bam Ireland was on track to meet its June 2025 projected substantial completion, date when it will hand the site back to the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board.

At this point, Children's Health Ireland (CHI) will require a six-month-minimum "operational commissioning period", which would bring the project up to December 2025.

Meanwhile, CHI has advised migration of patients cannot be undertaken in winter due to clinical risks, pushing the opening date to receive patients out to spring 2026.

The board is currently focused on ensuring the standards and finishes of the 5,500+ rooms are to the highest international standards.

The CHI leads the Children's Hospital Programme, which will see the integration of three hospitals and workforces once the NCH opens. The programme has a Government-approved budget of €362m.

The hospital will also see a fully digital hospital system built, including the electronic health records and ICT.

More than 4,000 staff will require training, while patients, staff and equipment will migrate to the new hospital and existing hospital sites will be decommissioned.

The hospital will act as a hub of the national network of paediatric services, with links to regional and local paediatric acute units.

A dedicated paediatric spinal surgery management unit is to be established at the hospital in an effort to maximise capacity for complex procedures.