Govt following through on promise of new children’s hospital – Buttimer

Fine Gael TD for Cork South Central and Chairperson of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children, Jerry Buttimer, has welcomed the announcement by Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar TD, that international design practice, BDP, have been appointed as architects for the new children’s hospital on the St. James’s Hospital site in Dublin 8.

“The appointment of architects for the new National Children’s Hospital is an important step towards realising this important health project which will serve the children of Ireland for years to come. A world-class team has been selected to ensure that we build a hospital unrivalled in its quality to provide the finest medical facilities, delivering the best treatment in a state of the art environment.

“Developing a world class paediatric hospital that will cater for the medical needs of our children continues to be a priority for Government. The design will build upon the existing infrastructure available at St. James, it will ensure that the National Children’s Hospital meets the tri-location requirements of a children’s hospital with an adult teaching hospital and a maternity hospital on site or within close proximity.

“The new hospital will provide 384 in-patient beds including 62 critical care beds; there will be 85 daycare beds, 14 theatres in total and 111 outpatient consulting examination rooms. The hospital will provide world-class care and treatment for a projected 28,258 inpatients per year. Over 220,000 outpatients will receive care and there will also be purpose built accommodation for parents. This hospital is long overdue and I am delighted that the wheels are now in motion for building to start as soon as possible.

“The design team is expected to finish its work early in summer 2015 after which the project will proceed to planning stage. It is hoped that construction of the long awaited National Children’s Hospital can commence in the latter half of 2015.”