The National Children's Hospital (NCH) has been in the news since its construction was first announced for a range of reasons from an increase in the budget to a pushback on its completion date. But what do we really know about Ireland's National Children's Hospital?
When was the NCH first announced?
The NCH was first proposed by the Royal College of Physicians in 1993 for Dublin. Planning permission was granted in 2016.
Children’s Health Ireland was established on January 1st, 2019. This saw Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin, Temple Street Children’s University Hospital and paediatric services at Tallaght University Hospitals come together and integrate into one organisation, in preparation for the opening of the NCH.
What is its purpose?
The NCH will act as a network to reach every community in Ireland through satellites and regional centres to deliver paediatric care. The proposed new children’s hospital development is the most significant capital investment project ever undertaken for healthcare in Ireland.
The NCH will include two new paediatric outpatient and urgent care centres, and it will become an academic healthcare organisation.
What will the NCH provide?
It will provide care for some of the sickest children in Ireland.
The creation of the NCH will see Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals replaced as the local hospitals for children who live in the city and within the M50. Day-to-day hospital needs of children from the Greater Dublin Area will be looked after in the new Paediatric Outpatients and Urgent Care Centre at Tallaght Hospital and Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown.
Where is it located?
The NCH will be located at 31 James' Walk, Rialto in Dublin 8. It will share a campus with St. James' Hospital and it will be constructed in a customised way to bring the three children's hospitals together.
How much will it cost?
When the planning application was launched in 2015, it was estimated that the NCH would cost €650 million. By 2017, the Government had approved a budget of €983 million. But in 2023, it is expected that the overall costs of the NCH will be €1.73 billion
What issues have arisen so far?
Many issues have followed the construction of the NCH such as disagreements on its location, refusal of planning permission, an increasing budget, the Covid-19 pandemic which halted construction for four months and delays in a completion date.
Initially, the NCH had planned to be on the site of the Mater Hospital, but An Bord Pleanála refused the planning permission. Then plans were submitted for the NCH to be on St James' Hospital site. Despite criticisms that this site was too small and had poor traffic access, the NCH plans were accepted.
However, the most recent problem that the NCH has met has been the ongoing disputes between BAM, the contractor and the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) which was set up to oversee the development of the NCH in 2005 by the then health minister, Mary Harney.
Since then, four chairs of the NPHDB have stepped down. The NPHDB accused BAM of underperforming in its contract. BAM sued the NPHDB for €20 million in cost disputes and submitted claims for additional payments.
The NPHDB has said that BAM has breached the terms of the contract as they have not updated the programme of works and has told the contracting company that they intend to hold 15 per cent of payments due to them.
Most recently, BAM have been told to stop work on the ceilings of 11 of the 22 operating theatres in the NCH following documents that were leaked to Sinn Féin suggesting that changes were needed to ceiling grilles and above-ceiling mechanical and electrical services in these operating theatres.
Remediation work may be needed in relation to the layout of the air circulation system, according to architects acting on behalf of the NPHDB.
When will the NCH be completed by?
There is still no definitive completion date. At first, March 2024 was proposed, but now BAM has pushed the proposed completion date out until May 2024.
The Department of Health says that once the contractor has completed their work, an additional six months will be needed for what the Department describe as "operational commissioning".
Despite the change of dates, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar maintains that the hospital's first patients will be treated at some point in 2024.
