Fine Gael TD for Dublin Fingal, Alan Farrell, questioned the Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar TD, on the progress in the development of the National Children’s Hospital.
“The development of the National Children’s Hospital is of the utmost importance to ensure that our children have access to the best possible standard of care in times of illness. The New Children’s Hospital will be co-located with St. James’s Hospital and, in addition to this, tri-located with a maternity hospital which will also be developed on the campus.
“There is no doubt in my mind that the inordinate delays in the delivery of this project have caused great hardship on families who have children with long or medium term illnesses. The new hospital, when build will be a state of the art facility catering for a whole host of conditions where are best served in a built for purpose environment.
“The development project for the National Children’s Hospital includes two satellite centres which will be based on the campuses of Tallaght Hospital and Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown. Minister Varadkar has confirmed that, overall, the planned accommodation for this project will encompass 384 in-patient beds, all of which will be en-suite rooms with parent accommodation in-room and 85 day-care beds. 14 theatres will be included, 3 of which will be ‘hybrid’ theatres, meaning they will facilitate access to imaging during surgery. In addition to this, 111 outpatient consulting examination rooms will be constructed on the main hospital campus on the St. James’s site and both the Tallaght Hospital and Connolly Hospital satellite centres, along with Emergency Department and urgent care facilities.
“The planning submission for the new National Children’s Hospital is due to be made in the next few weeks and, subject to approval, work is due to begin at all of the St. James’s, Connolly, and Tallaght sites in January 2016.
“I am pleased that the development of this project is progressing and that work is due begin within the next year. Having originally been scheduled for completion by 2016, it is clear that this project has been delayed for too long. Our children deserve access to world-class hospital facilities and it is certainly positive that such a development is being purpose built in Dublin to provide children in the North County, the greater Dublin area, and across the country with the treatment and resources they need and deserve.”