The projected completion date for the new national children’s hospital remains for this June but a subsequent “operational commissioning” phase will take at least six months, the Minister for Health has been told.
A briefing document from her department also says migration to the new hospital cannot be undertaken in winter due to “clinical risks”, which suggests it may not be fully open to patients until 2026.
The Department of Health clarified on Monday that the winter period runs from November to March.
Separately, the document says construction in relation to the new maternity hospital at Elm Park is expected to commence in the fourth quarter of this year subject to government approval.
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The Department of Health’s briefing to its new Minister, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, says the focus of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) is to ensure the hospital contractor, BAM Ireland, remains “on track” to meet its projected substantial completion date of June 2025.
Following completion by the contractor, the site will then be handed back to the NPHDB, which is overseeing the project and Children’s Health Ireland.
An onsite operational commissioning phase will then commence, which is described by the department as “a major aspect” and a “complex phase”.
“The NPHDB is also engaging with the contractor, HSE and Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) to secure additional early access for CHI of up to three months prior to substantial completion,” it says.
“Once substantial completion is achieved the hospital will be handed over to Children’s Health Ireland for a post-substantial completion operational commissioning period of at least six months.”
The document adds that in line with international best practice, CHI has advised that migration cannot be undertaken in winter due to clinical risks.
The total approved budget for the capital project, plus the Electronic Health Record system, ICT infrastructure, integration of the three existing hospitals and operational commissioning and opening is now about €2.24 billion.
The document outlines that about €1.8bn of this is for the capital construction projects and €360 million is for the integration and commissioning programme, and ICT/Electronic Health Record costs.
Construction on the main site continued to advance in 2024, the briefing document says, with the construction and equipping phase now over 94 per cent complete against the contract value.
The project is now in the construction completion “snagging and finishing phase”, with the installation of fixed medical 16 equipment and integrated building commissioning “well under way”.
“The focus of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board now is to ensure that the standards and finishes of over 5,500 rooms in the new hospital are to the highest international standards and that the contractor, BAM Ireland, remains on track against its programme to meet its projected substantial completion date of June 2025,” it says.
David Gunning, chief officer of the NPHDB, told the Oireachtas Health Committee last September that he couldn’t provide “assurance” that the project would reach completion by June 2025.
“I would be very reluctant to give the committee any assurance or confidence in the June 2025 timeline, in the absence of the information that we need to look in detail and do a critical analysis.”
Sinn Féin’s health spokesman David Cullinane said on Monday that there had been a number of completion dates which had “come and gone” without the hospital opening.
“The last time the board were before the committee they had no confidence the June [2025] deadline would be met unless substantial improvement in works were carried out by the contractor,” he said.
“There has been no update from the board since and so it is questionable whether that June deadline can be met. Only the board can answer whether they’re satisfied that substantial progress has been made…Really all we have is a completion date like 14 or 15 others that have come and gone.”
The briefing document also says that a “key priority” for 2024 is staying within budget and not having a supplementary estimate. Both pay and non-pay expenditure will need to be “carefully managed”, it says.
