Outcome of test on ventilation system of operating theatres in NCH ‘yet to be agreed’

The outcome of a test on the ventilation system of operating theatres in the National Children’s Hospital (NCH) has “yet to be agreed” with a firm that raised concerns over the layout of the system last year.

The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) said its design team had undertaken two tests in response to concerns raised in due diligence reports by a firm, STS Consulting, which is an adviser to Children’s Health Ireland – the body which runs children’s hospitals in Ireland.

While one standardised test was successful the NPHDB said a second test to observe air distribution in the theatre was undertaken. “The outcome of this test is yet to be agreed between STS and the design team,” a board spokeswoman said.

She added that the test was “not a standard test” and that “in parallel in reaching this outcome” BAM, the main contractor on the project, had been told to review the impact of moving grilles associated with the ventilation system. She said final validation tests had not been completed.

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The concerns raised by STS moved centre stage in the Dáil during a bitter political row which broke out on Tuesday after it emerged that remedial works may be needed at half the operating theatres, and that BAM had been instructed last month to stop works – although since then it has been told to resume its work.

Sinn Féin claimed the works would add tens of millions to the project and take months to address.

Reading from leaked STS reports during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said they outlined the “seriousness of major generic faults” with 11 of the operating theatres.

She said the experts said “these are not snagging lists but rather indicative of major generic faults and non-compliances. The longer that these issues take to resolve the more expensive and time consuming it will become”.

She said the experts said that “if the present approach is not corrected the systems will fail the final validation and will not be fit to be taken into use”.

On Tuesday the NPHDB insisted that any works related to rectify issues in the operating theatres would be “minor”, and it said initial indications from workshops held to assess the scale of the issue were that it would not impact completion or hospital opening.

Ms McDonald argued that “taxpayers’ money is spent in vast sums with a carelessness by a Government that’s asleep at the wheel” and there had been “massive” cost overruns and delays.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the new hospital “will transform healthcare for children on our island”, and the Government expected the main campus next to St James’s Hospital to be “completed and handed over next year” and that it would be “commissioned in the months after that”. He said earlier he expected patients to be treated there next year.

He said work on the NCH has not stopped or paused.

On Tuesday BAM said its “sole focus” is on delivering the children’s hospital. The NPHDB had earlier said BAM had not completed a compliant programme of works and was in breach of contract. The company said it was preparing the programme update “based on the scope as currently known”.

BAM said it had “not engaged with any third parties on any of these matters” after Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly publicly questioned whether it was Sinn Féin’s source.

In the Dáil Mr Varadkar said the NPHDB was undertaking a review of 11 of the 22 theatres. He added: “There can be no suggestion that any additional work on these 11 theatres – should it even be needed – could have any effect on the completion or opening of the hospital.”

Mr Varadkar also said that the board and the employers’ representatives have been “engaging with the contractor for months seeking a programme outlining how it will successfully complete the final 20 per cent of the hospital and this has not been forthcoming. “The Government believes this is an unhelpful distraction aimed at shifting the focus from the contractor and its responsibilities to others.”

While Ms McDonald said the problems identified at the operating theatres were “not snagging”, Mr Varadkar replied he would welcome if the Sinn Féin leader would provide a copy of the independent experts’ report “so that we can verify whether the claims you’re making here in the Dáil are true or not”.