Dr James Reilly, TD, Minister for Health, today (6 July) announced that the National Children’s Hospital will be located on the campus of the Mater Hospital, Dublin. This follows an independent expert review which he commissioned in May. It will now be submitted for planning permission.
The report, which carried out a detailed comparison of the costs of providing the hospital on alternative sites, and an analysis of the clinical benefits involved, is unanimous in its recommendation in favour of the existing site. It concludes that the cost of developing the facility there is similar to the costs which would be incurred if the project was provided on any of the alternatives examined. The report gives ‘unanimous and unequivocal support’ for the Mater site.
The Minister warmly thanked the members of the Review Team, which comprised clinicians/chief executives of major children’s hospitals in the UK, US and Australia and independent architectural advisors from the UK, for their hard work and commitment within a very short deadline.
The Minister reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to the project.
We have always supported the proposal to build a new children’s hospital which will provide the very best services and treatments for the children of Ireland. I am now fully satisfied that the Mater site is the right location.
The Minister noted the Report’s view that no site provides the perfect solution and the comment of the Review Team that “the enemy of excellence is perfection”.
The Minister said:
It is time for everyone to come together and deliver this children’s hospital in the shortest possible time. The creation of a world class tertiary hospital will need the commitment of everyone, including all those involved in the delivery of health services to children and in our wider society.
The Minister will now ask the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board to proceed as a matter of urgency with the submission of the planning application to An Bord Pleanála.
The Government will make a final decision on proceeding with the project in the context of its overall review of capital spending, which will be completed in September.
In the meantime, the Minister has called on the three children’s hospitals in Dublin to work very closely together, and to continue their discussions on forming a single governance structure well in advance of the opening of the new hospital.