Plans unveiled for €800m children's hospital at Mater

Children treated in the new €800m national paediatric hospital will each have their own en suite room under ambitious design plans unveiled yesterday.

The design, which gives the clearest picture yet of the planned state of the art facility to be built on the site of the Mater Hospital in Dublin, envisages it will have between 352 and 454 beds.

The report -- drawn up by RKW consultants for the HSE -- endorses the Mater site as a location for the hospital, effectively sealing its fate despite major misgivings by doctors and staff in other children's hospitals.

Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin and the National Children's Hospital in Tallaght will amalgamate with Temple St Hospital in the new location to provide a range of specialist care for the nation's children.

Outpatient

It allows for a linked urgent-care ambulatory centre to also be built in Tallaght Hospital at a cost of around €30m, where children in need of A&E treatment, outpatient clinics or day surgery can be seen by paediatricians. Although children will not be admitted to the Tallaght centre, it is planned to have observation beds available where those in need of monitoring can be looked after for up to 12 hours, said Dr Fenton Howell of the HSE.

Brian Gilroy, head of estates at the HSE, dismissed fears that the site will not be big enough to accommodate the new hospital. The space required for every possible section -- as well as a maternity hospital if it is decided to build one -- will be 118,600sqm. The Mater site offers a minimum of 140,000sqm. The three existing hospitals currently have a combined area of 60,000sqm.

Asked how many storeys the new hospital will eventually incorporate, he said it was not yet possible to say. Planning permission has yet to be obtained but this is not envisaged as a problem.

Questioned about the serious concerns raised about access to the hospital and the fears that people will be caught in traffic jams, he said nobody had yet produced an alternative report showing the "utopia" where there were no transport difficulties.

It is planned to direct the new metro line through the Mater campus and Iarnrod Eireann's decision to re-open the Broadstone station, close to the Mater site, will allow a link up with the Maynooth line and a connection to the Luas in 2012.

The new hospital will incorporate an underground car park and the size will be a matter for the development board overseeing the project. It is expected the site could accommodate 1,800 car parking spaces.

The new hospital will have a helipad and it is also envisaged a lot of outreach care -- such as the administration of chemotherapy -- will be done in regional centres. It is not yet clear if two other urgent care centres, similar to the one planned for Tallaght, will be built in Connolly Hospital in Blandchardsown and St Columcille's in Loughlinstown, and a decision will not be made until the new hospital is functioning.

There will be 20 operating theatres and treatment rooms. Currently, the three hospitals have 12 theatres between them.

It is planned to have accommodation for parents and families. This will range from bedside accommodation as well as a separate "home from home" family hostel. The design was delivered yesterday to the board and staff of Crumlin and Tallaght Hospitals.

The full design brief is expected to be completed in December 2008. It will be December 2009 by the time planning approval and construction procurement will get underway.

Eilish O'Regan Health Correspondent
Irish Indepependent

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