Sir, – The planning application for the development of a new children’s hospital for Ireland, on a shared campus with St James’s Hospital, has now been submitted. This is a hugely positive and important milestone for the project and we welcome it wholeheartedly.
The three Dublin paediatric hospitals, working together under the umbrella of the Children’s Hospital Group, have been actively collaborating for some time now on the paediatric model of care.
The new children’s hospital will be at the centre of this new model of care. It will bring all of the most complex elements of modern paediatric care under one roof for the first time in Ireland’s history, in a modern building that is custom-built to deliver the best medical treatments that are now available.
The tri-location of the new children’s hospital on a shared campus with St James’s Hospital – one of Ireland’s leading teaching hospitals – and the new maternity hospital, will provide the optimal model of care for the sickest children, new-born infants and women. It will improve clinical outcomes, patient experience and reduce waiting times. When the new children’s hospital is built, there will be no more unnecessary replication of highly specialised services for children.
The new model of care will ensure proper referral pathways for all the children of Ireland to access the care appropriate to their needs, either close to their home or, if very specialised care is required, then at the new children’s hospital.
An integral part of the new children’s hospital includes the development of two Satellite Centres planned at Tallaght Hospital and Connolly Hospital. These centres will provide urgent care to the children of Dublin and the surrounding counties as well as paediatric outpatients. These centres will allow children with minor injuries and minor illnesses to be treated locally in a model of care which has proven to be of the highest standard in other locations around the world.
The children of Ireland deserve the best care that they can be afforded and this project, developed by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and the Children’s Hospital Group, provides that opportunity. It is our sincerest hope that it will now proceed without any further delays. – Yours, etc,
Dr PETER GREALLY,
Group Clinical Director,
Dr CIARA MARTIN,
Clinical Director,
SUZANNE DEMPSEY,
Chief Director of Nursing,
Children’s Hospital Group;
Dr COLM COSTIGAN,
Chairman of Medical Board,
RACHEL KENNA,
Director of Nursing,
Our Lady’s Children’s
Hospital, Crumlin;
Mr JOHN CAIRD,
Chairman of Medical Board,
GRAINNE BAUER,
Director of Nursing,
Temple Street Children’s
University Hospital;
Dr TURLOUGH BOLGER,
Chairman of Paediatric
Medical Advisory Board,
Tallaght Hospital;
MARIAN CONNOLLY,
Director of Nursing,
National Children’s
Hospital, Tallaght.