Five groups seek to develop new children's hospital

Up to five private sector groups have now expressed interest in the development of the planned new national children's hospital.

The chairwoman of the task group to advise on the location of the facility, Laverne McGuinness, yesterday told the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children that it had been approached by a number of different consortiums, some offering sites and some offering to build the new hospital.

She said the task group had now engaged with the various parties.

It has also received submissions from all of the main adult teaching hospitals in Dublin to accommodate the planned new 400-bed children's facility, which is expected to be the most expensive healthcare project in the history of the State.

In addition to the consortium headed by developer Noel Smyth and the Beacon Hospital Group, it is understood that Harlequin Healthcare has submitted proposals to the task group on a site close to the M50 motorway.

It is also understood that the Forrest Little Golf Club in north Dublin has made proposals that the new hospital should be developed on land near Dublin airport.

Mr Smyth's group has proposed building the hospital at cost price at Newlands Cross or at any other site proposed by the Government. The Beacon group has submitted plans to build the hospital in Sandyford in south Dublin.

Ms McGuinness told the committee that the task group's terms of reference had been expanded to consider the possible co-location of maternity services on the site of the proposed new children's hospital/adult hospital campus, particularly for high-risk obstetric or neonatal cases.

Task group member Dr Fenton Howell of the Health Service Executive said all three Dublin maternity hospitals had now agreed that their services should be co-located with those of an adult hospital.

The Rotunda hospital has proposed moving its services to the Mater hospital in the event of the Government deciding to locate the new children's facility there.

The deputy chief medical officer of the Department of Health, Dr Philip Crowley, also a member of the task group, said yesterday there were no plans to amalgamate the three Dublin maternity hospitals. He said the maternity hospitals had informed the group that they would be against the idea of separating out high-risk obstetric and neo-natal cases and having them dealt with in a proposed centralised adult/paediatric maternity campus.

Ms McGuinness said the group hoped to complete its report by the end of the month and make a recommendation to the HSE board for its meeting in June.