Mater comments set HSE's pulse racing

HSE chief executive Brendan Drumm has told the Mater and Temple St hospitals that they will not decide when the new national children's facility opens.

It follows comments by Des Lamont, chairman of the Mater and Children's University Hospital's board of governors, at the weekend, that the new €500 million children's hospital could open by September 2011 - the 150th anniversary of the hospital.

Mr Lamont had also publicly thanked the Taoiseach, who was present, for honouring a commitment to deliver a new children's hospital at the Mater.

It is understood that reports of the comments, carried in The Irish Times and other media, angered senior HSE figures who considered they had the potential to re-open the allegations that the decision on the location of the new hospital had been based on politics as much as medicine.

When the decision was announced last June, several of the hospitals which had unsuccessfully competed for the hospital to be co-located on their sites, complained vociferously.

In a letter circulated yesterday to the main Dublin teaching hospitals, Prof Drumm strongly criticised Mr Lamont over remarks made last Friday about the new children's facility which is earmarked for the Mater campus.

Prof Drumm stressed that the Department of Health/HSE taskforce which made the recommendation on the location had been totally impartial. He also said a new independent body, and not the Mater, would call the shots in relation to the development of the new children's facility.

Prof Drumm maintained that Mr Lamont had been "disingenuous, presumptious and unhelpful" in publicly suggesting a target date of September 2011 for the completion of the project.

He said "it is not in the gift of the Board of the Mater Misericordiae and Children's University Hospitals Limited to determine when the new children's hospital will be built".

"To advance a target date in such a definitive manner prior to the establishment of the governing board is disingenuous, presumptuous and unhelpful in the extreme, particularly to families who are anxiously awaiting development of the new hospital.

"If you and your board are not clear on the independent governance structure planned for the new children's hospital, the current HSE/Department of Health and Children Transition Group, which is responsible for advancing this project, would, I am sure, be eager to provide you with complete clarification," Prof Drumm stated.

In a personal letter to Prof Drumm last night, Mr Lamont claimed he had been quoted out of context. He said the hospital's board of governors had no doubt about the process and procedures that were to be adopted to develop the new national paediatric facility. "We are completely aware of the independent governance structure and the work of the transition group and have indicated our intention to work closely with them," he said.

Mr Lamont said he had referred to the Taoiseach's commitment to the development of "a" children's hospital at the Mater - presumably as distinct from "the" national children's hospital now planned by the HSE.

He also maintained that his comment about the completion of the project referred to "a target date" which the hospitals had for the finalising of the project which would coincide with the 150th anniversary.