Minister Reilly Announces Children’s Hospital Board Appointments

Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly, TD, today (2 August 2013) announced the appointment of nine members to the Children’s Hospital Group Board.

The new children’s hospital, to be co-located with St. James’s Hospital on its campus, will bring together the three existing Dublin paediatric hospitals (Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, Children’s University Hospital Temple Street and the National Children’s Hospital, part of Tallaght Hospital) into one entity. The Children’s Hospital Group Board has been established on a non-statutory or administrative basis, in the context of the overall policy on Hospital Groups. The new Board members will join existing Chair, Dr Jim Browne, in overseeing the operational integration of the three hospitals in advance of the move to the new children’s hospital. As client for the building project, the Board will also play a key role in ensuring the new hospital is optimally designed and completed as swiftly as possible.

The appointments are competency based, informed by the recommendations on governance in the HIQA report on Tallaght Hospital, the Higgins report on hospital groups and the views of the three hospitals which make up the Children’s Hospital Group.

The Minister said, “I want to see the three hospitals become one before the new children’s hospital to which they will move is built. These appointments to the Children’s Hospital Group Board are a very significant step in that direction. I very much welcome the fact that the hospitals themselves are eager to work together as a Group and eventually, as one hospital.”

Dr Jim Browne, Chair of the Children’s Hospital Group Board, said “The appointment of these Board members heralds a new chapter in the provision of paediatric acute services for children in Dublin and throughout Ireland. The new Board members will bring very strong and very relevant expertise and experience to the challenges and opportunities we face as a Hospital Group. ”

The Minister has also announced the appointment of a Chair and other members to the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, replacing the interim Board members who have been progressing the new children’s hospital capital project since January. The appointments reflect the Development Board’s sole focus on the building project, to which they bring construction, architectural, engineering, planning and procurement expertise and experience. They also reflect the involvement of key stakeholders in this large-scale, complex and hugely important development.

The Minister said “I am delighted to announce these appointments, which ensure that the necessary capital development skills are available to drive this priority project to completion. I also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the work undertaken by officials from my Department and from the HSE who have brought the project forward since January and ensured that a strong start has been made in respect of site preparation, pre-application planning discussions and design team procurement”.