Sir, – At the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation conference, Norah Casey said the new paediatric hospital should still be built at the Mater site (Home News, May 11th). She stated her concerns that any change of location could potentially delay the hospital being built.
Ms Casey often reminds us that as nurse and mother and member of the National Paediatric Development board that she “knows” that the Mater site is the optimal location for the new hospital. The Minister for Health has instructed an independent board to look at the implications of the refusal of An Bord Pleanála to issue planning permission for the Mater site. This follows years of concerns being raised by many, including me (a nurse and mother), many consultant paediatricians and indeed the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine which queried the capacity of one city-centre paediatric emergency department to deal with the entire greater Dublin region (as far back as 2008).
I would suggest that now is the time for all on the National Paediatric Development Board to keep their own counsel and should Dr James Reilly to decide, on reviewing the report on the review group, to change the location of the new national paediatric hospital they need to fully back the Minister’s decision or reconsider their position on the board. – Yours, etc,