Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

On behalf of the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, I thank Deputy Tully for raising this matter and giving me the opportunity to address the speculation about the lack of accessibility for wheelchair users at the new children’s hospital.

The hospital is the largest health capital project in the history of the State and will transform the delivery of paediatric healthcare in Ireland. The project consists of the construction of the main hospital on the St. James’s Hospital campus and two satellite facilities at Blanchardstown and Tallaght. Both satellite facilities are now open and delivering care. The new children’s hospital will be an incredible state-of-the-art hospital. It will be Ireland’s first digital public hospital, providing 473 beds in total, comprising 380 inpatient beds and 93 day beds. The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board reports that the construction and equipping phase of the main hospital is approximately 90% complete against the contract value.

Regarding recent media reports, the development board has advised that the new children’s hospital has been designed, and is being constructed, in consultation with Children’s Health Ireland and in accordance with a disabled access certificate. There are more than 5,000 rooms in the new hospital and the development board has advised that all rooms and areas within the hospital are fully compliant and, as such, accessible. It appears that the comments attributed to an anonymous Dublin consultant are inaccurate or incorrectly attributed. The Minister for Health has been advised that neither the NPHDB nor CHI is aware of any reported complaint from a clinician or clinicians in respect of access. The Minister would encourage any clinician or other member of staff to engage with CHI or the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board directly to address specific concerns or misunderstandings that may exist in this regard.

The hospital’s design evolved out of extensive dialogue with many stakeholders, including staff from the three children’s hospitals, families, young people and children who were former or current users of the service. This process, which also fostered integration and the alignment of new ways of providing clinical care, has led to the development of a world-class building that is expressly designed for staff to deliver the best possible clinical care for children and young people.

With a project of this scale and such a large workforce moving into the new hospital, undoubtedly there will be reservations and differences of opinion raised by clinicians and other staff. However, significant consultation was undertaken to capture and address as many of those matters as possible at the point of design. The new hospital has been designed in line with international best practice to contemporary standards so as to reduce clinical risk and be as future-proof as possible, including by ensuring accessibility for staff, patients and their families.

If any clinician or other member of staff has an issue in this regard, we ask him or her to engage with CHI, the NPHDB or the Minister directly.

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