Louise Burne: Decade of squabbling over hospital leaves sick children in limbo
National Children's Hospital was bright, airy, and, quite clearly, extremely massive on RTÉ’s Prime Time last week. Picture: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board
As a former child, I found myself envious watching RTÉ’s last week as they toured the corridors of the new National Children’s Hospital.
It was bright, airy, and, quite clearly, extremely massive. As a former Temple Street Children’s Hospital patient, the difference was immeasurable. The only thing missing was the children.
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The children who deserve a top-of-the-range hospital, where they can be treated by their fantastic doctors and nurses, who are currently doing their best in our three ageing paediatric hospitals.
While I was not as sick as many of the children who have been treated in Temple Street Children’s Hospital, I did spend more time there growing up than any of my friends.
I was born without a thyroid gland, which meant that I was a regular frequenter of the endocrinology department in Temple Street for the first 12 years of my life.
Initially, the consultants had to see me every few weeks. This moved to every couple of months as I got older, ultimately becoming a four-appointment-a-year arrangement.
Almost 20 years later, I have, thankfully, never had to return to Temple Street in any way, shape, or form.
Despite being so young at the time, several things have always stuck in my mind. I remember the colourful walls being garish, the pictures of the cartoons on the wall looking tired, how crowded the waiting rooms could become, and how little there was to entertain me the older I became.
The thing I remember the most, however, was the lack of privacy when my height and weight were being recorded at the nurse’s station on a busy corridor as we all lined up on uncomfortable chairs waiting to be called by our consultants.
Despite the fantastic care I always received, it was clear to me even as a child that a better facility was required. And the Government agreed.
Shortly before I stopped going to Temple Street, a McKinsey report commissioned by the HSE was published in 2006. It was recommended that a single national children’s hospital should be built.
In 2009, then-Taoiseach Brian Cowen said the hospital would be open in 2014.
Following back and forth, rows about the location, and a decision to then change where the hospital would be built, then-health minister Leo Varadkar confirmed in 2015 that a planning application for the hospital on the site of St James’ was being lodged.
In 2016, planning was granted, and Mr Varadkar said the building would be completed in 2020 “short of an asteroid hitting planet”. We all must not have noticed the asteroid hitting the planet.
A decade after this prediction, two decades after it was decided the hospital was required, and three decades after I started attending Temple Street, the new National Children’s Hospital is still unopened.
And 19 missed completion dates, four health ministers, and a deepening well of frustration later, we still do not know when children will be seen in this facility.
The saga continued this week, as Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) and the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) were back at the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and were placing the blame for the hospital not being ready firmly at the door of the main contractor, BAM.
Ironically, the PAC hearing took place on April 30, the same date that BAM had advised the hospital would be done and handed over to CHI for full commissioning.
As David Gunning, chief of the NBHDP, sat in the committee room in Leinster House on Thursday, he still had no idea when they would be receiving the hospital keys.
He said that while the hospital was “nearly there”, the board, quite rightly, would not accept any work that is not up to clinical standard.
BAM denies all of this, saying that there have been umpteen design changes, and that has caused the delays.
Phelim Devine of the NPHDB told PAC there has not been a single design change in 2026. He said in the last nine months, there were changes required in 58 rooms. At the same time, there were 60,000 defects identified during snags.
As reported by my colleague Tadgh McNally earlier this week, about 200 rooms have had to be refitted and repaired due to leaks.
Other issues include water not draining in bathrooms with showers, dirt underneath a layer of the operating theatre’s floor, and dust from building works in the ventilation ducts.
The Government, CHI, and the NPHDB are insistent that BAM is at fault, and that the contractor has not resourced the project appropriately.
The question is what, if anything, are they going to do about it?
At PAC, Fine Gael TD James Geoghegan asked Mr Gunning if he was aware of a relationship with a contractor that has ever been as hostile as the one between BAM and the State.
“I have never experienced anything to this extent,” Mr Gunning said.
And yet, BAM is still being awarded contracts, including the Narrow Water Bridge project, linking Carlingford in Louth to Warrenpoint in Down.
In September 2024, then-health minister Stephen Donnelly wrote to the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste to advise them of further delays to the National Children’s Hospital. It was the 14th time that BAM had failed to meet its deadlines.
“The State must factor current performance on public works into the future awarding of work so that the State is not seen to be either a soft touch or to reward poor performance and behaviour,” he told the Taoiseach.
“I believe there is a need to consider this once again in light of the above examples and that we should engage with European leaders and legislators on further measures to exclude suppliers who perform poorly from tendering for future works to better enable the State to deliver much-needed infrastructure.
“I have asked my officials to engage with the Office of Government Procurement to progress this matter and would ask you to consider raising this with the European Council.”
When I asked around Government sources this week, they had a vague recollection of the letter, but nothing seemed to have ever come from it.
The new Government has placed a strong emphasis on infrastructure, introducing new laws that would rush critical infrastructure through the planning process.
What good is this if when the project goes to site, it is not getting built on time or on budget? Getting the planning permission is well and good, but projects like this show that it is not always the biggest obstacle.
They can give out about BAM until the cows come home, or at least until the keys of the hospital are handed over, but will there be consequences for the delay?
Who in Government will put their hands up and accept responsibility for the contracts being poorly written?
Who in Government will say a situation like this will not be allowed to happen again? Who in Government is going to take action?
If the Government were serious about infrastructure, it would follow through on what Donnelly suggested all those years ago and see if it could act against contractors who do not live up to their side of the agreement.
One minister said to me a few years ago that when the new hospital opens, it will be so marvellous that taxpayers will not care about the final cost.
While I doubt this is true, what they will care about is the fact that their children have not been receiving care at a top-of-the-art facility for the last decade due to squabbling.
Because, like me, former children who were patients in CHI Crumlin, Tallaght, and Temple Street have aged out of paediatric care.
Perhaps our children will receive care there one day, and we can compare and contrast how shiny the new building is compared to the old ones.
But the thing must bloody open first. And the prospect of that feels like it is getting further and further away.
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