Latest news with #nationalchildrenshospital
Irish Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Numbers working on children's hospital project dropped by third since January, politicians hear
There has been a 33 per cent decrease in the number of staff working on the site of the new national children's hospital since the start of the new year, politicians have been told. Building on the site at St James's Hospital in Dublin began in 2016 after years of disagreement over the location of the hospital. The following eight years were marked by ballooning costs – from €987 million to €2.2 billion, with repeated delays exacerbated by an increasingly fractious relationship between the builders, BAM , and the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board , which oversees the project. The hospital's completion date has been delayed once again, from June to September 2025, and patients are not due to be treated in there until June 2026 at the earliest. READ MORE At a meeting of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday morning, Phelim Devine, project director of the development board, said last October, when BAM committed to complete the hospital by June, there were 750 workers on site. 'Following that commitment, there was a bump. It bumped up to 900. But since January, that's slowly dropping off every month. It's now down below 600,' he said. David Gunning, chief executive of the board, said he did not have faith in BAM, the contractor as this is the '15th new timeline'. [ National children's hospital builder completes only 60% of progress Opens in new window ] Asked if he believed this new deadline would be met, Mr Gunning said it was 'too soon to tell', as the board had not yet had the opportunity to 'forensically examine the programme'. 'It is possible to get this hospital done by the 30th of September,' Mr Gunning said, but only 'if the appropriate resourcing is provided to get it done'. Those resources are not there 'at the moment', he said, 'but that doesn't mean it can't be provided'. Mr Gunning was asked about the status of legal claims. The Comptroller and Auditor General , Seamus McCarthy, said the development board paid BAM €122 million for a claim around delays. He said there was a high volume of claims coming in from the contractor, but there were 16 claims that amount to about €800 million relating to delays. One claim is valued at between €200 and €300 million, he added. 'There is duplication and triplication within [those] 16 claims,' he said. 'The contractor has to prove quite a lot to make these claims stick. It has to be dealt with, examined and analysed in a great deal of detail.' In a statement on Thursday evening, BAM Ireland said that over the past seven months 'in the region of 70 significant change orders, each of which can include multiple design changes, have been issued to BAM. This has inevitably delayed substantial completion'. On worker levels, the contractor added that the project has 'always been fully resourced by BAM' and is currently resourced at about 50 per cent higher than expected for this stage. Also before the committee on Thursday, Lucy Nugent, chief executive of Children's Health Ireland (CHI), apologised for the breakdown in trust that has occurred between patients and CHI, particularly in relation to orthopaedic services. She said the surgeon at the centre of a controversy about the use of unauthorised springs in three children's spinal surgeries, referred to as Surgeon A, remains on paid, voluntary leave while a 'HR process' is under way. A recent report on the matter by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) criticised CHI for its culture and governance. Ms Nugent said it was her role as chief executive to ensure 'robust processes' were in place so staff feel 'psychological safety to speak up if they see something wrong'. Meanwhile, in the Dáil , Sinn Féin 's finance spokesman Pearse Doherty called on Tánaiste Simon Harris to take responsibility for a 'build as you go' contract for the hospital that 'declared open season on the public finances'. Mr Harris, who was minister for health at the time of the contract signing, said that, considering €110 billion is being spent annually, 'investing just over €2 billion over a number of years for a hospital that will serve children well into the next century is a good thing to do, an appropriate thing to do, and it will make a very, very significant difference to children's health'.
Irish Times
12-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
CHI unable to move in to national children's hospital due to continued delays
Children's Health Ireland (CHI) has still not received early access to the new national children's hospital despite this phase of the project being due to begin six weeks ago. The €2.2 billion project has been beset by delays and cost overruns, but is due for substantial completion in June. The body overseeing the project – the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) – agreed with contractor BAM Ireland that CHI, which operates paediatric healthcare in the State, could have access to the site from April to mitigate risks of delays to operational commissioning and to complete technical commissioning. However, this access has not yet been granted. It is understood the delay is due to some areas of the hospital not yet being completed to a contractual standard. READ MORE Asked about the delay, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health said Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill met the CHI board on April 28th to discuss the transition to the new hospital and 'emphasised the importance of opening the hospital safely and expeditiously'. The Minister also wrote to BAM on April 15th and received a response on May 2nd, the spokeswoman said, in which she received 'confirmation of a mid-summer completion milestone of technical commissioning'. 'The NPHDB and CHI are working to ensure opening can be achieved with minimal further delays. All parties want to see this hospital open as soon as possible,' the spokeswoman said. 'Once substantial completion is achieved the hospital will be handed over to CHI for operational commissioning. This is a complex and critical phase that will involve the installation of more than 36,000 pieces of clinical equipment, integration with the EHR [electronic health records], and the training of over 4,000 staff from the three existing hospitals.' Operational commissioning will take six to nine months, with the first patients not expected to be treated in the hospital until the first quarter of next year. [ Efforts to finalise workforce for national children's hospital continue amid concerns over understaffing Opens in new window ] CHI has been under consistent pressure in recent months, particularly around the provision of orthopaedic care for children. A report published by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) into the use of unlicensed metal springs in spinal procedures on three children in Temple Street Children's Hospital in Dublin found children were 'not protected from the risk of harm'. It is understood a second report on orthopaedic services, around unnecessary hip surgeries, has been completed and will be published shortly. A third report, by orthopaedic consultant Selvadurai Nayagam, is also being carried out. Jim Browne resigned as chairman of the board following the publication of the Hiqa report, with advocacy groups calling for the entire board to be removed. The Minister last week told reporters she would look at the way in which the board is set up 'over the next number of months' but that she needs a board to be in place to 'to keep the hospital on track'.
