The chief executive of Children in Hospital Ireland has expressed concern about recommendations to locate the new national children's hospital alongside a major adult centre.
Speaking at the organisation's annual lecture last night, Mary O'Connor said that the benefits of such a move were not clear cut.
The location of the new 380-bed children's hospital will be determined next month on foot of a recommendation by an inter-agency group.
All six main public adult hospitals in Dublin, as well as the private sector Beacon Group, have expressed an interest in the €500 million project.
Ms O'Connor said that the new children's hospital should be a major academic teaching centre in its own right, attracting top- class clinical, teaching and research personnel.
She asked why could it not be a stand-alone hospital. Ms O'Connor said that more detail was also needed about the urgent care units to be established to provide emergency services in local communities after the development of the centralised central paediatric hospital in Dublin.
"We feel there is a pressing need to examine all the options, including alternatives, such as maintaining some secondary care facilities along with high quality A&E services," she said.
Children in Hospital Ireland is a national organisation established by parents to press for the development of paediatric services.
Meanwhile, the chief executive of the Health Service Executive, Prof Brendan Drumm, said that the inter-agency group would come up with a recommendation that was based on the closest fit to the centralised model ideal put forward recently by consultants, McKinsey.
He said that it would have to identify a site that was large enough to take what will be Ireland's most complex medical facility. The new location would also have to be able to expand and facilitate research.
