I welcome the Minister to the House. The issue I have raised is one of considerable importance, namely, the need for the Minister for Health and Children to relocate the Children's Hospital, Temple Street, on the Mater Hospital campus and to ensure a full range of paediatric specialist and non-specialist services are maintained in the interim. The reason I raise this matter today is that there is considerable concern abroad that the Government is about to renege on its commitment to relocate the hospital. It is approximately 20 years since a site was obtained on the campus of the present Mater Hospital. In the best medical practice, the children's hospital should be located close to an adult hospital because after the age of 15 a child should receive treatment in an adult hospital rather than in a children's hospital. Therefore, it is important to locate the two hospitals adjacent to each other.
The present hospital in Temple Street is at least 170 years old. It is located in a number of old semi-Georgian buildings and other ramshackle buildings that were erected from time to time. The actual structure is very poor in terms of requirements given the hi-tech equipment in the hospital, but particularly in terms of the needs of children and parents. Service in the hospital is second to none. Patients, their parents and nurses are extremely happy with the quality of the services provided, but the location and accommodation are very poor. There is an urgent need to relocate the hospital. Temple Street Hospital serves the entire north side of Dublin as well as counties Meath, Louth, Monaghan, Cavan and areas down to the western seaboard. Since the closure of Harcourt Street Hospital, Temple Street has been serving quite a number of families from the south side of Dublin as well.
It is the second largest hospital in Europe in terms of attendances for accident and emergency cases, having dealt with over 50,000 such cases last year and a similar number of admissions for operations and other treatment. It is by far the largest of the three children's hospitals in the country and provides an enormous amount of services. Neither the parents of children attending the hospital nor the children themselves have a bad word to say about the hospital's quality of service. However, the hospital building is long past its sell-by date and the sooner it is relocated the better.
Such a decision needs to be taken soon because I understand the extension to the Mater Hospital is due to start this year and the design work on the new hospital has not yet taken place to any great extent. If the two projects do not start in tandem there is a danger that it will be difficult to begin work on relocating Temple Street Children's Hospital at a later stage.
According to a report from Comhairle na n-Ospidéal, the level of specialist paediatric services should be reduced at Temple Street and paediatric specialist services should be concentrated in Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin, which is stand alone and not adjacent to an adult hospital. If the specialist services are reduced and not maintained, the danger is that Temple Street will become little more than a general medical hospital without any specific surgical elements. As a result, the hospital would be run down and there would be a risk of its never being transferred to the new location.
Those are my main concerns. Is the Government still firm in its intention to relocate Temple Street Hospital and to maintain the level of specialist and non-specialist paediatric services there? Is the Government prepared to make funding available for the relocation?
