The Government has abandoned plans to move the Rotunda to Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown, and is backing the maternity hospital staying in Dublin city centre as part of a bolstered planning application for a new critical care unit.
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill confirmed on Tuesday night that it is her intention “to focus on the future of the Rotunda on the current site”.
Carroll MacNeill was speaking following a meeting with the Rotunda Hospital and the Health Service Executive (HSE), where it was agreed that the maternity hospital will submit a new enhanced planning application for an extension.
As well as the critical care unit for infants that was originally planned, the new application will also include critical care facilities for women and an enhanced Sexual Assault Treatment Unit.
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It emerged last month that An Coimisiún Pleanála had struck down plans for a €100 million extension of the Rotunda Hospital intended to care for critically ill infants.
The decision came after the planning commission agreed with objectors that the critical care unit would fail to protect the “existing architectural and civic design character of the site, or Parnell Square generally”.
In a statement, the Department of Health said that the new plan was to improve the existing relationship between the Rotunda and the nearby Mater hospital. “It is also important to recognise the site as an integral part of Dublin city centre, specifically for women, in all their needs,” it said.
This means the Rotunda will now be exempted from long-standing Government policy of co-locating maternity units with acute adult hospitals. The National Maternity Hospital on Holles Street in Dublin is planning to move to the site of St Vincent’s hospital.
“The intention of this Minister is to focus on the future of the Rotunda on the current site, it is open to a future Government to take a different approach. The Minister has taken this decision following engagement with the Clinical Leadership team for the region which includes Connolly Hospital, Beaumont Hospital, Mater Misericordiae Hospital and Rotunda Hospital.”
Prof Sean Daly, Master of the Rotunda, said: “The plans we discussed today will not only significantly improve the critical care infrastructure at the Rotunda but will also make it an enhanced centre of care for families at the heart of our city.
“This is a pragmatic approach to the future of the site and to the future of care for the women and babies.”
