A LUMP sum of £1,203,036 was negotiated with the building contractor of Tallaght Hospital after it was found necessary to demolish 12 partly constructed operating theatres and rebuild them.
As the hospital was being built, the 12 operating theatres were found to be about 34 sq m instead of the 37 specified in the design brief.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Purcell, in his audit of the 1995 accounts in the health sector, said the rebuilding meant enlarging 10 theatres to 42sqm and to 56sqm for two orthopaedic operating theatres, together with alterations to comply with statutory requirements and medical practices.
The additional cost was apportioned by the hospital board as £658,525 for demolition and reconstruction work and £544,511 for claim for delay, disruption or acceleration, making a total of £1,203,036.
The project manager told the board that the reductions in size seemed to have taken place between October 1987 and June 1990, due mainly to revisions made to the exit corridors and doors from the theatres.
He said the project director told him the additional cost of the alterations would be up to £414,000, plus fees if appropriate.
"In reckoning the additional cost, the project director has only counted the cost of the general theatres because he maintains it would have been necessary in any event to adjust the size of the operating theatres for orthopaedic operations in view of the fact that additional larger equipment was becoming commonplace in support of surgery in orthopaedic operating theatres.
"In his view, this enlargement would have had to be undertaken in any case and would have been funded from a contingency sum within the contract.
"However, had the remaining general theatres been constructed to the proper shape, and an area of 37 sq m in the first instance, no alteration to these theatres would have been required."
He said the Tallaght Hospital board has taken legal advice on whether and to what extent this additional cost can be recovered.
In his audit of the Blood Transfusion Service Board, Mr Purcell found it had cost £135,542 for blood withdrawn and stocks discarded in January 1996.
When 5,130 blood packs were examined for evidence of leakage, i.e. moisture in the plastic over wrap, three major leaks were found. Droplets of moisture or inclusions were found in 59 more overwraps. On January 10th last year the three major leakages were examined by personnel from the board and the manufacturers.
These leakages were attributed to needle defect which was confirmed later as a defect caused by handling at the manufacturing plant. Corrective action was implemented by the manufacturers two years later.