Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 February 2022
700. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the expected handover date of the National Children’s Hospital; the expected date by which it will be fitted-out and operational; the expected month for opening; if the hospital will open for some services before it is fully complete; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4532/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn November 2021, the second paediatric Outpatient and Urgent Care Centre, at Tallaght University Hospital, opened, marking the second major milestone on the NCH project. The new facility will accommodate up to 17,000 outpatient and 30,000 emergency care attendances per year.
Together with ‘CHI@Connolly’, which opened in July 2019, these facilities will improve access to urgent and outpatient care for a significant number of children. More than 95% of those presenting for urgent care at Connolly are able to go home after treatment and waiting lists for general paediatrics significantly reduced within a year of opening.
Despite delays, the new children’s hospital building at St James’s is really taking shape. The façade is almost complete, with the building largely weathertight, and the internal fit out of all clinical areas is now underway.
However, this remains a very complex project with over 40,000 activities detailed in the contractor’s programme to complete the over 6,000 rooms/spaces in the new hospital.
The NPHDB has advised that BAM’s own schedule suggests substantial completion of the project could be achieved by December 2023 which would mean the National Children’s Hospital (NCH) at St James’s could open in the second half of 2024, after the necessary commissioning period. This is approximately one year beyond that originally expected under the contract.
A period of operational commissioning was always required beyond the substantial completion date- the date which the main contractor would hand the site back to the NPHDB and then to Children’s Health Ireland. Work is ongoing to determine if some of that commissioning activity timeline can be reduced or conducted in parallel with substantial completion, where it is safe and appropriate to do so. Work on commissioning and an opening plan is ongoing.
The NPHDB and the contractor are working to do everything they can to ensure that this new substantial completion date and opening can be met. There remain external risks which the NCH is not immune to and are beyond the control of the Development Board and the contractor to the timeline, arising from Brexit, the global pandemic, global supply chain difficulties and shortages of construction raw materials. However, BAM, as a Tier 1 construction company, has global reach into supply chains and is doing its best to mitigate those risks. Nonetheless, these external risks make speculation and more definitive forecasting unwise.
