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National Maternity Hospital

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 April 2022

Tuesday, 26 April 2022

Questions (1477, 1478)

Mairéad Farrell

Question:

1477. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Health if he will provide a copy of a review (details supplied). [19777/22]

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Mairéad Farrell

Question:

1478. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Health the analysis and justification that has been completed since 2008 that demonstrates that the relocation of the new national maternity hospital to Elm Park is still the best solution for the women in the greater Dublin area 14 years later and complements the updated relocation sites for the Rotunda and the Coombe hospitals given that a key goal of the 2008 report was to balance births evenly across the three relocated maternity hospitals. [19778/22]

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Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1477 and 1478 together.

It is Government policy, as reiterated in the National Maternity Strategy, to co-locate stand-alone maternity hospitals with adult acute hospitals. Co-location of maternity services with adult services provides mothers with access to a full range of medical and support services should the need arise, in line with international best practice. In order to be successful in terms of enabling immediate access in an emergency, co-location requires physical adjacencies and specific corridor-linkages from one hospital to the other. The availability of these services helps ensure the delivery of an optimum, safe service, particularly for high-risk mothers and babies.

The 2008 KPMG report recommended that the NMH should be co-located with St Vincent’s, the Coombe with Tallaght and the Rotunda with the Mater, tri-located with the new children’s hospital then planned for that site. This configuration was designed to optimise access and the locations were therefore interdependent.

Following the Government decision in 2012 that the new children’s hospital would be co-located with St James’s Hospital in Dublin 8, there was a need to provide for tri-location of maternity services on that site. In the context that the project to relocate the NMH to St Vincent's had commenced and a design team was in place, a review was undertaken to determine which hospital (the Coombe or Rotunda) would be tri-located with the children's hospital and St James’s Hospital, and what the optimum location would be for the remaining hospital. The review took account of attendance patterns and access overall, as well as clinical criteria and site considerations. Further information in relation to the relocation decision is available here:

wayback.archive-it.org/11501/20190626194030/https://health.gov.ie/blog/press-release/department-of-health-announces-sites-for-redevelopment-of-coombe-and-rotunda-hospitals/

In relation to the NMH, co-location with SVUH will make the wide range of general medical, surgical and diagnostic facilities on the Elm Park campus available to any woman who needs to be transferred from the adjacent maternity hospital, resulting in care provision that is far superior to the existing situation. This co-location will also build on the longstanding working relationship between the NMH and SVUH, given that a significant proportion of the consultant staff at the NMH are employed by and work between the two hospitals.

Question No. 1478 answered with Question No. 1477.
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