New National Children’s Hospital delayed again

The long-promised new national children’s hospital will open its doors in spring 2019, according to the design team appointed to lead the project.

The timeline for completion of the €650 million project has slipped further, despite earlier promises by former minister for health James Reilly that it would be ready by 2018.

The team designing the project at St James’s Hospital in Dublin plans to submit a planning application next June, instead of February as originally planned. The hospital will now open its doors in the second quarter of 2019, but this is dependent on obtaining planning permission from An Bord Pleanála.

The delay was caused by a longer than anticipated time taken to choose the design team for the hospital, and by some extra time sought by the design team once appointed, according to sources.

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar, speaking at an event in Dublin Castle to mark the appointment of the design team, said he expected it to finish its work “in a matter of months” with a view to securing planning permission and beginning site clearance and enabling works next year.

“Ireland’s children deserve a world-class hospital. We’ve been promising it, and talking about it, for too long. Let’s get building,” he said.

Tom Costello, chairman of the board designing the National Paediatric Hospital, said he was confident it could deal with all site and planning issues at St James, which has been criticised in some quarters as too small a site with poor car access.

Mr Costello said the site was three times that available at the Mater, the original location for the hospital until An Bord Pleanála rejected the planning application for that location.

He said carparking would be managed effectively and the families of sick children would be guaranteed spaces, which they could book in advance. Night staff would also be provided with access to the 1,000 spaces to be provided.

Mr Varadkar said he envisioned a maternity hospital being built adjacent to the planned children’s hospital at St James’ within the next decade.

Eilish Hardiman, chief executive of the Children’s Hospital Group, which is overseeing the merging of the three existing children’s hospitals, said the debate over the site was over. “The discussion now need to be about how we can design the hospital on time and deliver something we can be proud of.”

International design practice BDP has been chosen as architects for the project, it was formally announced today. British architect Benedict Zucchi of BDP, who has extensive experience in the design of children's healthcare facilities, will lead the team with Irish partners O'Connell Mahon Architects.

Leading Irish engineering consultancies Arup and O'Connor Sutton Cronin and quantity surveying firm Bruce Shaw have also been appointed to the design team.

Design fees for the projects are estimated at €35 million.

The new hospital will include 384 inpatient beds including 62 critical care beds, all single and ensuite. It is expected to deal with over 28,000 inpatients a year and 223,000 outpatient attendances.

The long-delayed project was originally supposed to be ready by 2016. The project was moved from the Mater to St James’s after planning permission was refused at the Mater.