The board of Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, is looking at fresh options for its future including rebuilding the hospital on the site it currently occupies.
It has also sought and been given advice to the effect that its present site would be large enough to accommodate a maternity hospital, which it believes would be more important for a new children's hospital to co-locate with than an adult teaching hospital. It is also examining a number of greenfield sites.
Its move follows the decision of the hospital board last week not to co-operate with a Government plan to merge all three existing children's hospitals in Dublin - those at Temple Street, Tallaght and Crumlin - into a new national children's hospital on the site of the Mater hospital.
Despite calls from Minister for Health Mary Harney to the Crumlin board yesterday to reconsider, a source on the board told The Irish Times last night: "We are not for turning on this." A spokesman for businessman Noel Smyth said he would rebuild Crumlin hospital on a not for profit basis on its current site if approached.
However, Health Service Executive sources have indicated that the Crumlin go-it-alone strategy could be in difficulty as the HSE will ensure all new staff taken on in the three children's hospitals between now and when the new hospital is built will have to sign contracts saying they will move to the Mater site in due course.
A member of the Tallaght hospital board, Alan Gillis, said earlier this week that his hospital will also refuse to move to the Mater. The hospital wants a meeting with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Ms Harney before it makes a final decision next week. It wants the new hospital located across two sites.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny yesterday expressed "deep suspicion" about the way the decision was made to locate the new national children's hospital at the Mater site in Mr Ahern's constituency. He called on the Government to begin an immediate review of the process surrounding the selection of the site before any further action was taken.
Fine Gael Senator Brian Hayes claimed widespread concerns about political interference in the decision to locate the new hospital in Mr Ahern's constituency were supported by correspondence dating back to 2002 between Mr Ahern and the then health minister, Micheál Martin.
In one letter Mr Ahern sided with Temple Street in his own constituency in its battle for a consultant paediatric post which Comhairle na nOspidéal decided should be based at Crumlin.
Mr Ahern wrote: "Given that the intention is to move Temple Street on to the Mater campus and to provide a state-of-the-art children's hospital for north Dublin and indeed the country, any further downgrading or de-skilling of Temple Street would not be in anybody's interest."
At the time it was planned to move Temple Street to the Mater campus and rebuild Crumlin hospital on its own site. However, it was later decided to review the process and build one national children's hospital and co-locate it with an adult teaching hospital. The Mater site was chosen.
The HSE has rejected any suggestion of political interference in the choice of site and Ms Harney ruled out reviewing the decision yesterday. She said it was time now to get on with the project. "I think no matter what site was chosen, there would always be institutional rivalry," she said.
There will be an emergency meeting of the board of Temple Street hospital today, after which it is expected to express its firm support for the Mater site.