Anyone who has passed by the back of St James’s Hospital recently will know that the new national children’s hospital has become an established fixture on the skyline.
The interior of this massive project is also taking shape, as a tour of the building on Thursday revealed. The hospital is still a hard-hat zone dominated by the buzz of machinery, but the elements of a sophisticated 21-century healthcare facility are steadily beginning to emerge.
Nothing of this size or cost has ever been funded by the State before, and the inquest into the delays and overspending incurred will last for many years. Nonetheless, it is hard not to be impressed by the level of design and thought applied to this project.
The entrance is a vast concourse with wraparound stairs and the shafts where six panoramic lifts will be installed to take visitors to one of 4,800 clinical rooms. “From the front door, and all the way in, this will be a fun, safe space for a child,” promises Tracey Wall, director of nursing at Children’s Health Ireland.
Children’s input
There are cafes, an “all-faith facility” and a 350-seat auditorium where many of the 2,500 students will be trained. But the heart of the hospital are the 380 inpatient rooms for sick children, each one single-occupancy, wheelchair-accessible and ensuite.
All of the cubicles enjoy natural light and a view, either onto the interior courtyard gardens or outward towards the Dublin mountains, the Phoenix Park or the city centre. The rooms were designed in consultation with child patients, whose wish-list included a bed for parents staying over, mirrors and a full-size television for family movie-watching. There is air-conditioning, but the windows open.
Each room will be equipped with a “child edutainment system”, a handheld tablet which the young patient can use for education or amusement.
“We’re trying to mimic the child’s home in each room, while the corridor outside is a village-type place and the building itself is like the city, where you go for your X-ray or surgery,” Wall explains.
The elevated helipad will be a first in an Irish hospital, giving rapid access to emergency services. It is expected to receive about four flights a week.
There are 22 operating theatres off a corridor as long as Grafton Street, more than the 15 in the existing three Dublin children’s hospitals.
What began as an assembly of outbuildings at the back of St James’s Hospital that many doubted would ever fit a new hospital is now 80 per cent complete.
