AN INDEPENDENT review of critical care capacity at Dublin's children's hospitals recommended an extra 11 beds be provided by January next year.
The review by the UK-based DNV Consortium was completed for the Health Service Executive in July 2008 but has never been published. A copy of the report, seen by The Irish Times, recommends critical care bed capacity at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, be increased from 21 to 30 and at Temple Street Hospital from 18 to 20. All additional beds, it said, should be open by January 2010.
The HSE confirmed yesterday it would provide extra intensive care beds at Crumlin hospital but not as many as recommended in the DNV report. Any new beds it will provide will not be available for another 18 months.
Brian Gilroy, director of estates with the HSE, told a meeting of the Oireachtas Health Committee that the HSE had sanctioned a new 17-bed intensive care unit for Crumlin and, when built, it would replace an existing 13-bed intensive care unit at the hospital. The hospital also had eight critical care beds for cardiology patients.
After the new unit is built at a cost of about €5.5 million, Crumlin will end up with a net increase of four critical care beds rather than the extra nine recommended in the DNV report.
The existing 13-bed intensive care unit in the hospital is years old and last weekend a consultant cardiologist at Crumlin, Dr Paul Oslizlok, said the DNV report found it posed a risk to patients.
The report refers to the "extremely poor quality" of some elements of the existing critical care infrastructure at Crumlin "and the attendant safety risks", and referred to "an urgent need for short-term investment".
Dr Oslizlok said a week ago that a shortage of intensive care beds at the hospital meant children's heart operations were being cancelled on a weekly basis.
The DNV review was ordered in response to complaints from staff at Crumlin for several years. These concerned the shortage of intensive care beds and staffing which was putting patients at risk - many critically ill children could not access intensive care and others were having surgery cancelled as a result of the shortages.
It is understood their complaints were made to the HSE, to Minister for Health Mary Harney, to the State Claims Agency and the Medical Council.
The DNV report, which was to look at what was needed until the promised new national children's hospital is built on the Mater hospital site, also recommended an increase in staffing levels.
It said staffing levels were "significantly below internationally accepted standards" and recommended a single critical care department across Crumlin and Temple Street.
Prof Brendan Drumm told the Oireachtas committee that extra consultant staff had been approved and the HSE was establishing a team headed by John O'Brien, former chief executive of St James's Hospital, to manage the relationship between the HSE and the acute paediatrics community.
In addition, he said, Crumlin hospital was now "to begin engaging fully" with the development of the new national children's hospital despite initial objections.
Meanwhile, Ms Harney confirmed to the committee that the new children's hospital would, despite the downturn, still go ahead.