Children's hospital is almost ready — but questions remain about managing the transition

Incorporating Crumlin, Temple Street, and Tallaght children's hospitals into the NCH may be a bigger challenge than the eye-watering cost

New Children's Hospital, Dublin. Picture: Q4PR 

Construction at the new children’s hospital could finish this summer but questions are being raised over how this move will be managed and how children will fare.

One business expert said while the cost is “excessive”, a bigger challenge is blending the cultures of Crumlin, Temple Street, and Tallaght hospitals neatly into one package.

This apparently needs to happen within a year — unless there are more delays — but for the 250,000 children relying on Children's Health Ireland (CHI), last week’s Hiqa report was not reassuring.

At Dublin City University Business School, Paul Davis has been watching with bemusement. He said: 

You’ve got to integrate three different hospitals, with three different cultures to work together. The reality is, that’s a big ask. 

Back in 1998 a new hospital opened in Tallaght, a merger of three hospitals. 

By 2012, Hiqa said the amalgamated organisation "continued to embrace a number of different legacy beliefs, activities and cultures," and that it "lacked an organisation-wide strategic vision and culture".

Mr Davis warned: “We seem to be making the same mistakes again.

“I think there are good people there — let’s not criticise people who are trying their best — but we are not really arming them with the resources that’s needed to do this.” 

He has researched inventory systems across three Dublin hospitals.

“You could take a single syringe that came from one supplier, and you would have three different product descriptions on that,” he said.

While construction is overseen by a separate National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, CHI and its board were to focus on preparation.

“This is something that needs to be much more proactively managed, and it’s not clear to me this is the case. We’re only beginning to talk about these cultural things in the last few months,” he said.

Instead the focus has been on the spiralling cost, now at over €2bn.

“It seems large to us now — and it is excessive in terms of what we paid,” he said, adding for its future however, “the main objective is to make sure we have the systems in place and the people able to operate them well".

Concerns about staffing levels 

In the last few months we also learned that 12 paediatric surgeons wrote to the health minister warning about under-staffing. 

This followed a KPMG report saying top management only devote 10% to 20% of their time on preparations to move to the new National Children's Hospital. 

So it’s hard not to wince when CHI was asked by the Department of Health this week “to do everything in its power to ensure that the hospital is opened as safely and quickly as possible”.

Asked about extra supports for CHI, the department pointed to a dedicated Transformation Director in place with around 250 staff. 

This is supported by Newpark Healthcare, experts in hospital commissioning. A national oversight group is also overseeing, supported by a HSE lead director, with recommendations in place from an external review.

The clock is ticking, and while it has been ticking for some time, parents and their children really need to see urgency before anymore reports are required.