Resourcing on the site of the new national children’s hospital in Dublin remains “behind what is required” for the builders to meet the agreed programme for opening, health officials have been warned.
Minutes from an internal Health Service Executive group, which were released to The Irish Times under Freedom of Information legislation, show ongoing concerns and “uncertainty” around the hospital’s completion date.
According to the most recent estimates given to the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the new hospital, which will cost €2.24 billion, is due to be completed by contractors BAM next February and then officially opened after a six-month commissioning process.
Minutes of the Children’s Hospital Project and Programme group — which were heavily redacted — reveal continued concerns around commissioning and resourcing.
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At a meeting of the group in March — which was attended by officials from the HSE and Children’s Health Ireland as well as the board overseeing the development — the group was told that whilst contractor resourcing on-site “has improved somewhat it remains behind what is required for BAM to meet the programme.”
Last month, The Irish Times revealed that the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) said that BAM has yet to deliver a compliant programme of works. “The primary reason why the substantial completion date continues to move out is a lack of resourcing by BAM,” the board told the PAC.
[ National children’s hospital development stretches back 13 yearsOpens in new window ]
BAM has rejected claims that there are resourcing issues on site. “The project has always been fully resourced by BAM according to the original work programme and is currently resourced significantly above the level that was anticipated for this late stage given the design changes that have occurred. BAM’s progress is being hindered by continuous design modifications instructed by the NPHDB, which have significantly increased the overall scope of the project,” a spokesman said.
At the March meeting of the Children’s Hospital Project and Programme, officials also discussed how “challenges remain in relation to the approval of the remaining key commissioning posts” as well as “the level of uncertainty regarding substantial completion”.
The following month, officials discussed the “complexity” of the project, which included “planning the logistics of putting 80,000 pieces of equipment into the hospital, and the ongoing exploration of obtaining support for this work from the wider public sector”.
The development of the hospital has been mired in controversy for years as the cost increased, while relations between the NPHDB and the contractor have been strained throughout.
The board has said it intends to move forward with a sanction which is allowed for in the contract. It said it will “shortly submit” a claim which would allow it to withhold 15 per cent of certified payments until a compliant programme of works is received.
There is also an ongoing row over design responsibilities between the board and the builder. In correspondence to the PAC, the board said “BAM has been stating that it is a ‘build only contractor’. This is incorrect concerning the new children’s hospital project. The contract clearly sets out that both the NPHDB and BAM, and its subcontractors, have design responsibilities.”
The builder has rejected this, saying the “primary driver of delays and additional cost on the project has been the volume and frequency of design changes requested” by the board.
“BAM is the build-only contractor on the project and is not responsible for design. As is a standard part of the construction process, the client issues a design specification for the project against which the contractor is required to make technical submittals. These are not design changes; they are a client-required part of the standard technical construction process,” a spokesman said.
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