Three maternity hospitals to be rebuilt in Dublin
Three of the country’s major maternity hospitals are to be rebuilt on new sites in Dublin to make them safer for mothers and babies.
The Rotunda, the National Maternity Hospital, and the Coombe, where about 40% of the country’s babies are born, have all been complaining of overcrowding.
All of the hospitals will be located alongside a major adult teaching hospital in the city and planning applications are expected to be submitted over the next 18 months.
The Rotunda will be relocated to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, the National Maternity Hospital will move to St Vincent’s University Hospital, and the Coombe will move to St James’s Hospital.
The Coombe is to relocate to a site adjacent to the planned national children’s hospital at the St James’s campus.
The Rotunda will be in Dublin West, the constituency of Health Minister Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Joan Burton.
Ms Burton was present when Mr Varadkar announced the reorganisation of the maternity services outside Government Buildings yesterday.
Mr Varadkar said he was concerned the Rotunda’s relocation to Blanchardstown would be seen as a political stroke.
“Being an elected official and politician, I know that the public rarely rewards you for the promise of something. It’s only when it’s actually built that they’ll believe you, so I don’t see any major flood of votes coming to myself or the Tánaiste.”
Mr Varadkar said the original proposal to relocate the hospitals did not come from himself or Ms Burton — it came from the board of the Rotunda and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, their academic partners.
Ms Burton said she was conscious all of the hospitals had given hundreds of years of service to women but, in many cases, the buildings were just not suitable for a modern maternity service.
A planning application for the new children’s hospital would be made within the next few weeks.
Mr Varadkar said it was necessary to review maternity services after the site for the new children’s hospital was chosen for the St James’s campus. “Rebuilding these hospitals on new campus sites will be safer for mothers and will ensure access to a full range of specialised services like intensive care, cardiology, and other specialities when needed.”
The Department of Health had consulted widely to take account not only of the current attendance patterns at the hospitals but also looked to see how access for patients could be improved.
A planning application to relocate the National Maternity Hospital at St Vincent’s is expected to be made before the end of this year.
Planning applications in relation to the relocation of the Coombe and Rotunda are likely to be made within the next 18 months.
The new hospitals are each expected to cost around €150m to build. Mr Varadkar, asked about funding, said a public-private partnership was one of the options being considered.
However, it could take around five years before all the hospitals are built.
Consultants KPMG recommended in its 2008 report on maternity services in the greater Dublin area that all maternity hospitals should be co-located with adult acute services to provide optimal clinical outcomes.
