I am pleased to have an opportunity to make this opening statement. The letter of invitation asked me to discuss the new tertiary hospital for children. In late 2005, the Health Service Executive, at the request of the Tánaiste, initiated a review of tertiary paediatric services for Ireland. Following a procurement process, McKinsey and Company was engaged to provide a written report recommending the strategic organisation of tertiary paediatric services for Ireland, in the best interests of children. As part of the brief, McKinsey and Company was instructed that the report and its recommendations should be evidentially based, fully documented and informed by international best practice, working models in the delivery of paediatric care, current and projected demographics in Ireland, the inter-relationship between secondary and tertiary care provision for children, the requirement to provide paediatric secondary care and accident and emergency services for children in the greater Dublin area, emerging clinical trends and technological developments. Specifically the report was to identify whether tertiary paediatric services should in future be provided at one or more locations, the facilities required to meet tertiary paediatric needs, that is, beds, be they in-patient, day, ICU, theatres, diagnostic facilities, radiology, pathology and out-patient facilities and appropriate facilities required to meet secondary paediatric service needs in Dublin.
The report, Children's Health First, was completed by McKinsey and Company, accepted by the board of the Health Service Executive and presented to the Tánaiste in February 2006. Its main findings and recommendations are as follows. The population and projected demands of Ireland could support only one world class tertiary centre. The centre would require the following attributes to deliver international best practice in tertiary paediatric services: breadth and depth of services; accessibility; ability to recruit and retain high quality staff; strong academic and research capability and efficient use of resources. The centre would be located in Dublin. Ideally, it would be co-located with a leading adult academic hospital. It would have space for future expansion, including education and research facilities. It would be easily accessible through public transport and the road network. The centre would be at the nexus of an integrated paediatric service comprising important outreach capabilities at key non-Dublin hospitals, adequate geographic spread of accident and emergency facilities, including two to three of these in Dublin, and treatment at urgent care centres is another option. These centres would be either stand-alone or attached to an adult facility with no inpatient children's beds. The centre would also provide care for all the secondary needs of the greater Dublin area.
Following publication of Children's Health First, a joint Health Service Executive and Department of Health and Children task group was established in February to progress matters and, in particular, to advise on the optimum location of the proposed new hospital. The task group also includes representation from the Office of Public Works. The task group has been working intensively since its establishment. The joint task group embarked on an extensive information-gathering process to inform the decision-making process. They drew up evaluation criteria in line with the proposed assessment criteria in Children's Health First. They consulted with the patient advocacy groups on important factors which should be considered in choosing the location of the new hospital and requested information from, met with and undertook site visits to the Dublin academic teaching hospitals.
Arising from the deliberations of the joint task group, a number of important issues, not included in the original terms of reference, arose. In particular, the issue of co-location with maternity services, especially for high-risk obstetric and neonatal services, emerged as requiring consideration. The decision was taken to extend the working time for the task group in order to allow for expanded terms of reference and further consultations, including consultations with the three maternity hospitals in Dublin. The Dublin maternity hospitals were invited to provide written submissions outlining their views on the appropriate model, scope and scale for a maternity-neonatal service that could be accommodated as part of the new paediatric hospital and the consequential implications for maternity services in the city.
Meetings have been held with two of the three Dublin maternity hospitals and I can confirm that a meeting with the third, scheduled for yesterday, also took place. Meetings have also been held with representatives of private companies that have submitted unsolicited proposals to the joint task group expressing an interest in building this hospital. The work of the joint task group is due to be completed at the end of May and it is intended that the report of the group will be considered by the board of the Health Service Executive at its meeting on 1 June.