The Chairman of the Adelaide Board of Management stated last month that he had been instructed by the board to announce that the position of the hospital was so grave that the hospital might soon be forced to close.
Detailed proposals were drawn up more than ten years ago under which three inner-city hospitals, the Adelaide Hospital, the Meath Hospital and the National Children's Hospital in Harcourt Street, would close and would be amalgamated into a regional hospital in Tallaght. Negotiations have been held for the past two years between the Government and the board of the Adelaide Hospital, whose traditions are specifically Protestant, to guarantee that the ethos of the hospital would be maintained in the new hospital. The former Taoiseach had guaranteed that and the discussions centred on the constitution of the new board, which would uphold the ethos of the Adelaide Hospital. The hospital would cost around £180 million, including an estimated £165 million for the first phase of 450 beds. It would take four years to build and 18 months to commission and would be the biggest single health project ever undertaken in this State.
To date some £10 million has been spent on the project designed to serve a population of 320,000 people. However, even though the first sod was turned in 1986 on a site near the square, the area's main shopping centre, it was not included in the Government's capital allocation either this year or last year.
Last June a formula was accepted in principle by the Adelaide Hospital under which it would have greater representation than the other two hospitals on the board of the Tallaght Hospital. The National Children's Hospital also accepted the formula, but the Meath Hospital sought modifications. The Adelaide board were shocked and dismayed by the Meath Hospital's rejection of parts of the proposal which would have allowed the Adelaide to remain, as it was put, "a focus for Protestant participation in the health services". The Adelaide board concluded that the board of the Meath did not wish the Adelaide Society to have a role on the Tallaght Hospital to the extent that the particular denominational ethos of the Adelaide would be continued in Tallaght, thus ensuring that the new hospital would be supported by the Protestant liberal communities.
The Adelaide have insisted that they should be granted a dominant role in the management of the hospital in order to preserve their distinctive character and to ensure they could continue medical procedures which, although legal, were not carried out in other public hospitals because they were contrary to Catholic medical ethos.
The second major reversal for the Tallaght project was the decision by the Government not to fund it in 1992 but instead to refer the whole project for reconsideration by a committee chaired by Dr. David Kennedy. There is now a belief that the Tallaght Hospital, if this Government build it at all, will be downgraded into a secondary hospital with 350 beds instead of the 600 originally proposed. If the end result is 350 beds it might not be of sufficient importance to be the teaching hospital at the forefront of Irish medicine and would not be a suitable hospital for the Adelaide School of Nursing and, of course, it would be too small to accommodate the existing three hospitals.
Last April it emerged that the current Minister for Health, Deputy O'Connell, had asked the hospital to consider remaining at its current location in the city centre. The board maintain if it is to stay in Peter Street or in the centre of Dublin, then it must be accommodated in larger and more modern premises. The Adelaide deferred major capital developments for the past 20 years on the assumption that it would be moved to a more modern premises. The hospital also has to address its ongoing financial crisis.
In 1991 the Adelaide spent £300,000 more than it was allowed by the Department of Health. This year it has been given an allocation which is about £800,000 less than is needed to keep the hospital going at the same level as in 1991. In the meantime there is no definite information about Tallaght, no definite information as to the role of the Adelaide, no definite information as to the ethos of the new hospital. The current Minister for Health has added to the confusion regarding the future of the Adelaide Hospital.
I believe the Adelaide have played a very important role in Irish medical history and have the potential to make a most valuable contribution in the future. I am calling on the Minister to immediately clarify his position with regard to the future role and funding of the Adelaide Hospital and his intentions regarding the construction of the Tallaght Hospital. When will this construction commence? When will it finish? This impasse must be broken.
