THE policy of closing Dublin city-centre hospitals, most dating from the Victorian era and before, and replacing them with modern hospitals on the city's outskirts was first outlined in the 1968 Fitzgerald Report. Since then 12 hospitals have been closed or are about to be.
That was almost 30 years ago and yet the policy has never been reviewed. Since then the decline in the population of the inner city, which continued throughout the 1960s and 1970s, has been reversed and it is now starting to rise.
For example, according to preliminary figures from the 1996 Census, the population of St Kevin's ward, covering the Cork Street area close to the Meath Hospital, has increased by 502, or 16.5 per cent, since 1991. That of Wood Quay, around the Adelaide, has increased by 775, more than IS per cent. South Dock ward, around Ringsend, has increased by 27.2 per cent and the area around Dame Street by 1,120, almost 100 per cent.
The Fianna Fail TD, Mr Ivor Callely, a member of the Meath Hospital board, is very concerned about the area being denuded of hospitals. "It's wrong," he said. "There's a need for another acute general hospital in the city-centre. St James's cannot take the place of 12 other hospitals. When I raised the question I was told there was the Mater, but it already, has its own catchment area.
When the base hospitals which are going to Tallaght are closed, the sites and buildings will remain the property of the foundations which ran them. These foundations will use the assets to supplement facilities in Tallaght, with the agreement of the Tallaght board.
Mr Callely is opposed to this. "The Minister who has authority to do so should take control of one or both to ensure there are services for the city-centre," he said. "At the very least there should be an accident and emergency service in the area and a cottage-type hospital which could deal with simple procedures."
His party colleague, Mr Charles O'Connor, from Tallaght, who represents the Eastern Health Board on the board of the Tallaght hospital, is delighted that the hospital will be there at last, although he acknowledges there may be a problem for inner-city residents.
"The whole inner city will be stripped of hospitals. But Tallaght is the largest population centre in the country after Dublin and Cork, with 80,000 people, 30,000 of them under 20.
"The hospital is very much part of Tallaght's infrastructure, along with the RTC, the council headquarters/library, the Square and the leisure facilities. Even now people want to know how it will impact on the local economy. People are asking me how to open a shop for the hospital or do hairdressing in it. And how does a Tallaght person get a job in it?"
The hospital will have a staff of 2,000, at least some of whom will live in Tallaght and the surrounding area. Mr O'Connor pointed out that apartment blocks are now being built in Tallaght and are being sold to young people. Various other options for accommodation directly linked to the hospital are under consideration.
"I've been asked to talk to the staff of the base hospitals about Tallaght and I've been telling them that it's a great place now compared with six years ago. You can work, live and play in Tallaght."
