Plans for a £268 million hospital development on Dublin's northside which will see the Mater and Temple Street Children's Hospitals coming together on one site, have been approved by the Department of Health.
Planning permission will now be sought for the first stages of the project, which is expected to begin in autumn 2002 on a derelict car- park site at the Mater Hospital on Eccles Street. The project is expected to be complete by 2008.
The development control plan for the new hospital campus was unveiled yesterday by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin. It will result in a significantly extended Mater Hospital and a new purpose-built children's hospital. The present Temple Street hospital site will be retained for future medical/community use.
Treatment of adults and children will be provided separately but "back to back" on the new campus. Both hospitals will still have separate entrances and car parking will be provided in the basement of the new buildings.
The old Mater Hospital building will be refurbished as a 70-bed day hospital. It is expected to take pressure off the new acute hospital, which will have 546 beds, the same as at present.
The new children's hospital will have seven theatres and 170 beds, 38 more than it has now. Also included in the complex will be facilities for the new national heart/lung transplant programme. It is the largest health project in the National Development Plan (NDP).
A special company, the Mater & Children's Hospital Development Ltd, was set up two years ago to oversee the project. It is a joint initiative of the Sisters of Charity, who run Temple Street, and the Sisters of Mercy, who run the Mater Hospital.
Mr Martin said he was confident, despite the economic downturn, that the development would be completed. "This year we have provided sufficient capital to meet the implications of the NDP for 2002 and we will continue to do that over the lifetime of the plan (to 2006). Obviously there will be extra costs coming on stream in terms of both inflation and development issues, but I am very, very confident that the plans we have so far committed and the hospital projects we have committed to will be realised," he said. "We have entered into this project and I've now approved it to stage three. I wouldn't do that if I wasn't committed to getting the project completed".
Sister Helena O'Donoghue, provincial of the Mercy Congregation, said the approval of the plans was a significant milestone. "We are very excited today about the stage that we have come to because we are having the opportunity to celebrate something visible," she said.
Mr Paul Cunniffe, chief executive of Temple Street Children's Hospital, said the staff of the hospital, its children and their families, looked forward with "eager anticipation" to the development. "Not only are we building a new hospital, but by moving onto the campus of our sister hospital, we are helping to pioneer a new model of paediatric hospital. This will enable us to share specialists' facilities and open up new opportunities for both our hospitals".
Mr Martin Cowley, chief executive of the Mater Hospital, described the unveiling of a model of the development plans as a very exciting day for the Mater Hospital. "We have been waiting a long time for this." He said it would result in better working facilities for everyone which would bring about higher morale.