Micheál Martin
Question:358. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Minister for Health the current estimate of the cost of the children’s hospital integration programme in the new national children’s hospital project. [43284/19]
View answerDáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 October 2019
358. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Minister for Health the current estimate of the cost of the children’s hospital integration programme in the new national children’s hospital project. [43284/19]
View answerThe overall programme to deliver the new children’s hospital also entails a complex integration of the existing hospitals, the opening of the Outpatient and Urgent Care Centres and the transfer of services to the new hospital facilities in due course while maintaining existing services, patient safety and quality at three existing sites represent a highly complex project in its own right. A major programme of work is underway focused on transformative service change to merge three separate hospitals while maintaining existing services, patient safety and quality at three existing sites. The recent establishment of Children’s Health Ireland provides the strengthened governance structure required to continue the service reorganisation, including staff deployment, oversee the complex work of integration and transition to the new facilities and run the hospital and outpatient and urgent care centres when they are built.
The Children’s Hospital Integration Programme resource requirements from 2016 to 2023 are estimated at a cumulative €86m revenue including VAT over the period. These costs were included in the overall cost approved by Government in December 2018 and relate to the resources required for corporate and clinical integration, merger of three hospitals, standardisation of clinical processes, clinical support, non-clinical and corporate process, commissioning, transitioning and decommissioning of existing sites and user engagement to support the capital project.