4 Noll 2019, 16:09
There will be two sessions at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) tomorrow, Thursday. In the first session the Committee will meet with officials from the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB), the Department of Health, the HSE and Children’s Health Ireland.
The focus of the PAC’s examination will be the Board’s 2018 financial statements.
Established in 2007 the primary role of the NPHDB is to plan, design, build, furnish and equip a national paediatric hospital in accordance with a Department of Health and HSE approved brief.
In 2018 the NPHDB spent €127.6m in respect of construction work, administration and operations in relation to the new children’s hospital. This brought the cumulative spend on the project at end 2018 to €259.8m.
Children’s Health Ireland, who will also be in attendance, was set up in December 2018 to take over responsibility for services currently provided by Dublin’s three children’s hospitals and run the new children’s hospital in due course.
In the second session ,the PAC will meet with officials from the Department of Health and the HSE to discuss a chapter from the C&AG’s 2018 report on the development of primary care centres (PCC’S).
The chapter outlines the development of the Primary Care Centre model since 2001, how existing PCCs were prioritised and delivered, the current status of the network and plans for future expansion.
Chairman of the PAC, Seán Fleming TD, said: “We have a busy day tomorrow. In our morning session, the Committee will be keen to examine progress in relation to the management of costs associated with the new National Paediatric Hospital since we last met the Board in May.”
“In the afternoon session, we will try to ascertain exactly why only 36% of the planned Primary Care Centres have been built, the level of service being provided and whether they are achieving what they were established to do.”
The meeting will start at 9am in Committee room 3, click here to view.