Latest news with #JenniferCarrollMcNeill
Irish Times
05-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
‘Fear and distrust': why children's healthcare is in crisis
Children operated on when there was no need; industrial springs being used instead of approved medical devices; a doctor diverting children to his own private clinic leading to them facing dangerous treatment delays; and a poisonous work culture on the wards – these are some of the issues that have emerged in our children's hospitals. And that's before the not so little matter of the massive budgetary and time overruns that plague the unfinished national children's hospital. The body tasked with overseeing the healthcare of the nation's children is Children's Health Ireland. It was founded in 2019 and in just six years has faced a mounting number of controversies and scandals. READ MORE Questions are now being asked about the ability of CHI to do its job. And that's a job that will get all the more complicated when the children's hospitals, each with their own culture and way of doing things, have to merge under one roof when the new hospital opens. CHI is funded by the HSE and answers to it, so what role does the State's healthcare body play in all this? And what is Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll McNeill going to do as CHI lurches from crisis to crisis? Irish Times health correspondent Shauna Bowers explains. Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon.
Irish Times
12-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Bill for new National Maternity Hospital could reach €2 billion
The new National Maternity Hospital could ultimately cost close to €2 billion to develop, senior health service figures believe. If the estimate is borne out, it would mean the bill for the maternity facility, to be constructed on the St Vincent's hospital campus at Elm Park, Dublin, would be more than 10 times the amount originally allocated when the project was announced more than a decade ago. Tenders for the building of the hospital are being examined by an evaluation group in the HSE and are expected to be given to a project board shortly. Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll McNeill will then have to bring a final business case to Cabinet later this year if the project is to receive final approval. READ MORE Senior health service figures maintain construction costs for the hospital are likely to be about €1.5 billion, or higher, and that other bills associated with developing and commissioning the facility could push the final price to some €2 billion. 'The tenders are higher than expected,' a senior individual with direct involvement in the project said. It is understood there are contingency elements included in some tenders to minimise the likelihood of a repeat of the experience with the national children's hospital. That project, which will also cost in excess of €2 billion, has experienced significant overruns and is running way behind schedule. Some sources maintained that the development of the facility on an existing hospital campus rather than a greenfield site increased costs. A rise in construction inflation, allied with uncertainty over trading conditions because of the potential impact of US tariffs, are also said to have contributed. The Irish Times also understands that the HSE will face monetary charges if any undue delay on its part in making decisions leads to additional costs or delays. In May 2013, the then minister for health, James Reilly, announced the government had agreed to commission a new facility to replace the National Maternity Hospital's ageing premises at Holles Street. Dr Reilly said an 'indicative sum' of €150 million had been approved for the project. At the time it was forecast that construction would commence in late 2016 and be completed in 2018. The project was beset by a row over governance, ethos and whether there could be restrictions on the types of services provided to women being treated there. Campaigners, including some prominent medical figures, argued it would have a Catholic ethos because of the legacy of religious control of St Vincent's, which was founded by an order of Catholic nuns. They contended that this could prevent certain treatments – legal in Ireland but not permitted under church rules – from being made available. But the government, other staff at Holles Street and authorities at St Vincent's rejected these suggestions. Ultimately a 299-year lease was secured on the site to ensure its operational and clinical independence. Over the years cost estimates for the project increased significantly. In February 2017, the HSE projected it would cost €296 million. In June 2021, the Department of Health said cost estimates had risen further to about €800 million, including €300 million for commissioning and transferring services from Holles Street.
RTÉ News
11-05-2025
- Health
- RTÉ News
CHI accused of using off-label treatment without parental consent
Advocacy groups have accused Children's Health Ireland of treating children with an off-label application of a medical device without the informed consent of their parents. However, the hospital group has defended the insertion of gastrostomy buttons in the bladders of some children, saying it is a practice used around the world and has been found to be safe Gastrostomy buttons are designed to be inserted into the stomachs of patients to deliver medicines or nutrition. Amanda Coughlan Santry of the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Paediatric Advocacy Group says the issue arose when some children went to the UK for treatment and doctors there discovered the buttons in their bladders. She told RTÉ News the medics there wanted to know why it had been done in Ireland. When parents contacted a manufacturer of the devices they were told gastrostomy buttons are not suitable or tested for use in the bladder, she added. Some parents are concerned the practice may have put their children at increased risk from urinary tract infections. Responding to concerns first reported in the Sunday Times, CHI issued a statement saying "the placement of a gastrostomy button in the bladder, also known as a vesicostomy button (VB), is a long-standing internationally recognised practice." It says that a quick search found nine published studies from around the world, over an 18-year period, which covered the use of the buttons in the bladders of almost 190 patients. It claims all the reports found the practice is a safe method of bladder drainage for patients where use of a catheter is not an option. CHI says none of the studies supported the suggestion that the use of the buttons in the bladder could lead to an increased risk of infection. The CHI statement also included a link to an NHS information page, for parents of children getting the treatment, on the use of the buttons in the bladder which says "it has been recognised that the same device can be used for a different purpose that is, it can be placed into the bladder, through a vesicostomy, and used to drain urine out of the bladder. When used in this latter way it is referred to as a 'button vesicostomy'." However the page also says the use of the buttons can increase the risk of UTI. "This can be more common than when an intermittent catheter is used and the UTI can be more difficult to treat," the NHS page has said. The SBHPAG and the Scoliosis Advocacy Network met Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll McNeill to voice their concerns. In follow up correspondence, she referred to the CHI arguments for using the devices and told the advocacy groups that "CHI have advised that all historical use of technically off-label use of devices are retrospectively going through Clinical Ethics and the Medical Device Management Committees as good practice." She added that on the issue of communicating with patients and their parents "there is certainly room for improvement on this." The SBHPAG told RTÉ News that it is aware of three children who had gastrostomy buttons inserted into their bladders during treatment at CHI. However it added it represents a small cohort of families and it expects there could be other children affected by this. CHI says it cannot access the data at the weekend to find out how many patients were treated in this way.
