Medics say every hospital should have staff childcare built in
Dr Madeleine Ní Dhálaigh at the 2025 IMO annual general meeting. She described to the Irish Examiner ‘the stress of watching the clock when you’re trying to deal with sick patients’. Picture: Shane O’Neill/Coalesce
The two multi-million euro hospitals being built in Ireland will not offer a creche for hospital staff, even as doctors call for every hospital to have “proper childcare” built in.
Onsite creches are not planned for the new National Children’s Hospital nor the new National Maternity Hospital, the HSE has confirmed.
Many types of doctors work long hours, night shifts, or weekends, meaning they fall outside regular childcare hours.
In addition, doctors in training move hospitals, often from county to county, every four to 12 months during training years.
Dr Laura Finnegan (35) is training to be a GP, having started out training as a surgeon. Now a new mother, she said childcare was a factor in that switch.
“I will always miss surgery,” she said.
“I loved it, but I did always say when I went into it that I would only do it for as long as it was sustainable.
“It just got to a point where I knew it was going to be difficult to do both [surgery and parenting].”
Dr Finnegan stresses that this was one element in her thinking, saying: “I know loads of friends who are going through the surgical scheme and have kids. So it’s not saying that every woman who goes into surgery ends up changing.”
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She described childcare as “a hot topic” among non-consultant hospital doctors.
“Often the age you are when having kids coincides with the age that you’re going through a lot of the training programmes,” she explained.
“For the vast majority of people, apart from some unique specialities, this means moving at least every year and sometimes every six months.”
In her GP training, she said: “I move jobs every four months for the first two years.”
This can mean going from Dublin to Galway or Cork to Donegal with as little as three months’ notice.
She knows of people who put their baby’s name down for creche while still pregnant, but said for doctors in training, “they might not know where they [will be] by the time the baby is going to creche.”
A council member with the Irish Medical Organisation, she wants to see these challenges discussed more openly by health authorities.
The situation is complex, she noted, as offering placements based on family support for people with children could be seen as preferential treatment compared to trainees without children.
Dr Madeleine Ní Dhálaigh is a GP and has seen many changes since her first child was born in 2001 but argued much more is needed.
“At the time, maternity leave wasn’t really taken. I think I took 11 weeks that time,” she said.
“That was the norm; you went back. We were in a country town at the time; there were no creche facilities, so we had to get a child minder.”
Now she advises young doctors to invest in childcare as much as they can, saying: “People very regularly say ‘how do you do it all?’
“My answer is always I never have and I never will because you can’t do two full-time jobs.”
Dr Ní Dhálaigh described “the stress of watching the clock when you’re trying to deal with sick patients”.
As a result, her preference is for childminders when this can be afforded.
“You can have a successful family life and a successful career if you want, but you’ve got to invest in childcare,” she said.
She has seen changes in attitude, she said.
“It still remains that childcare is very often left for the woman to figure out or it’s for her career to take a step down.”
Just over 47% of doctors registered with the Irish Medical Council in 2024 were women.
She echoed the call for specialist creches, saying: “I think that every hospital should have proper childcare built in; where doctors who are expected to move their families from place to place have at least guaranteed childcare and access to local schools.”
Doctors later in their careers are likely “in the very lucky position” of affording childminders more easily, she indicated.
But she said, “if the doctors that are moving around are stressed out of their heads trying to sort out childcare, they are not going to be 100% at work.”
Caroline Baily is a consultant ophthalmologist and is just now looking for a new childminder, describing the process as “fraught” for her family.
While her work environment at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital is “very supportive” of female staff, this gap is her “biggest challenge”, she said.
“I work full-time, and my husband is a doctor, so we don’t have the option of ever working from home,” she said.
“The only people I know who have full-time childcare are doctors, doctors who marry doctors because we don’t have any flexibility at all." She adds:
They need about 42 hours a week of childcare, she estimated for their three children generally.
“I do love what I do, and fortunately I had very robust childcare to date,” she said.
“And having to find a new person has made me realise it’s so essential to have good, solid childcare to be able to perform at the level you need to.”
She is concerned about the lack of structured vetting systems for childminders.
“It’s very nerve-wracking; you don’t know who you’re letting into your home. It’s very difficult,” she said.
She was also critical of the Government focus on early years support, saying: “It is not just for two years, it’s up to the age of 16 really.”
Public childcare centres attached to schools would be ideal for older children, she suggested, saying nurses face similar challenges.
“Through the hospital would be amazing in the earlier years but when the kids are older that doesn’t work,” she said.
She added: “I think the Government needs to look at some kind of financial support for the childcare factor, and I would really think we need more structured places to find reliable childcare.”
Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) is a rare healthcare facility offering a creche for staff use.
It opened in 1998 when TUH was formed from the merger of three Dublin hospitals.
“In 2019, it was moved to a new, purpose-built and permanent facility within the grounds of TUH, where it still operates from today,” a spokeswoman said.
“The hospital set up a board to run it originally, but in 2016 it was contracted out, and that is the model now.
“We provide the facilities, which are rented, and Nurture Childcare runs the facility.”
She also said: “Having an on-site creche is a huge advantage for TUH, and we promote this fairly unique benefit when recruiting staff.”
Currently, 46 children of staff attend.
However, the cost is not subsided, with standard fees applying.
“Over the years, other hospitals have contacted us to enquire about how we provide this childcare service for our staff,” the spokeswoman added.
Despite this, creches remain rare.
A spokeswoman for Children’s Health Ireland said: “There are no creche facilities planned in NCHI”, referring to the €2bn new children’s hospital.
The HSE indicated the new national maternity hospital is also not expected to have a creche space when asked about this site and others.
“At present, there are no plans to introduce childcare or crèche facilities for staff across HSE hospitals,” a spokeswoman said.
Similar concerns led to a review in England last year of 27 major trauma centres.
This found that, while 26 centres had on-site nurseries, few were open after standard hours and none offered weekend hours.
It said this “critical gap” especially affects surgeons, nurses, and military medical staff working longer hours.
It concluded: “This underscores the urgent need for 24-hour childcare facilities that align with the operational requirements of the NHS.”
The review was published in journal.
These pressures facing doctors come amid childcare shortages for many parents across Ireland.
The National Women’s Council referred to Tramore in Waterford as one of a number of “childcare deserts” now emerging.
This followed a survey by the Tramore Childcare Campaign showing at least 152 more places are needed in the town.
- Niamh Griffin, Health Correspondent
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