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DUBLIN’S THREE MATERNITY hospitals are set for a wholesale relocation, the Department of Health has announced.
Some 40% of babies born in Ireland are delivered in one of the three Dublin hospitals, with the Rotunda, Holles Street and the Coombe all complaining in recent times of a critical shortage of space.
However, the principal reason for re-evaluating their locations came about after it was decided to develop the new national children’s hospital on the campus of St James’ in Inchicore – necessitating the building of a maternity hospital on that site.
The Coombe will be relocated to St James’ Hospital, while the Rotunda will move to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown.
The announcement follows an earlier decision to move the National Maternity Hospital from Holles Street to St Vincent’s University Hospital.
Planning permission
Minister for Health Leo Varadkar confirmed the agreement earlier today, saying that structural inefficiencies in the hospitals had become apparent in recent years.
But the TD for Dublin West denied that the Rotunda’s relocation to Blanchardstown was a political move.
When this proposal was first made, this was one of the concerns I had – that it might be perceived that way. Being an elected official and politician, I know that the public rarely rewards you for the promise of something. It’s only when it’s actually built that they’ll believe you, so I don’t see any major flood of votes coming to myself or the Tánaiste.
While there is no confirmed timeline for the opening of the new sites, he said that planning permission for the new National Maternity Hospital would be submitted by the end of the year, while applications for the two other sites would be made in the next 18 months.
In a statement, Varadkar added that international best practice is to co-locate maternity hospitals with adult acute services.
Rebuilding these hospitals on new campus sites will be safer for mothers and will ensure access to a full range of specialised services like intensive care, cardiology and other specialities when needed, without necessitating patient transfer.
Tánaiste Joan Burton, who joined Varadkar at today’s briefing, called the plan “ambitious and sensitive”.
I am very conscious that the hospitals involved have given hundreds of years of service to Irish women, but in many cases the buildings are just not suited to modern maternity services.
Approval
The announcement has also been welcomed by representatives of the various maternity hospitals in question.
Lorcan Birthistle, CEO of St James’ Hospital, said the decision is “in line with international best practice”.
“With the tri-location of services on the St. James’s campus, we will realise an academic health sciences campus that values world-class research, education and innovation, which in turn will drive excellence in clinical care,” he said.
The RCSI Hospital Group called the decision “a new dawn for patients and medicine”.
“The Rotunda is a hospital with great heritage and skills. At last it will have a modern facility appropriate to mothers and babies,” said Anne Maher, chairwoman of the group.
The current Irish maternity model of standalone hospitals is not the norm internationally.
In a 2008 report on Dublin’s maternity services, KPMG recommended that all such hospitals should be co-located with adult acute services as a matter of best practice.
Meanwhile, a planning application for the new children’s hospital on St James’ campus is due to be lodged in the coming weeks.
- additional reporting by Catherine Healy
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Honestly, Pakistan. India. Morocco. How are these idiots protesters not seeing what’s really happening here?
They are probably in pensionable employment in the asylum racket.
Activists have never had to worry about their actions making sense, they just want to know there is someone else to make noise with them.
Now we have the other nationalities, mainly Afghans, turning on the Syrians because they are getting preferential treatment!!!!
Am all for helping refugees but there is nothing wrong with their countries that were mentioned in the article. Most of them are economic migrants which may not be approved if they went through normal asylum processing. We want to help true refugees like from Syria. I can’t believe that people don’t see that as they are illegal migrants, not true refugees.
If we wanted to help as many Syrian refugees as possible we and EU would try to improve conditions at the refugee camps in and around Syria. The immigration crisis is one of Merkel’s making
Journal, why did you put an unrelated picture of a boy in a refugee camp as a cover for this story? Is he getting deported? Or is it a well known emotional bullying tactics?
They can’t put up a photo of boats full of mature men on boats coming from Pakistan. Better to show the odd kid
They should just put a picture of a smartphone up as that would represent the current crisis more accurately .
Why don’t they ever put up of any pictures of the 1,250 women who got raped and sexually assaulted in Cologne as the muslims played their ” sex game” Taharush?? Imagine that, 1250 women in ONE NIGHT raped and sexually assaulted, the mind boggles.
Journal.ie, what’s with all of the pictures of the children when according to UN stats over 70% of these people are young male migrants? Why don’t you post pictures of mostly men to reflect the proper demographic of these people? Journal.ie, why are you engaged in propaganda that is attempting to soften up the gullible for mass migration of muslims from the middle east??
Journal.ie, why don’t you do a feature story on the 1,250 women who where sexually assaulted and raped in ONE NIGHT in Cologne by these peoples????
Thats not in their objective.. piss poor journalists..
They did a story on the Cologne attacks Seamus. Back when it happened, more than 4 months ago. But don’t let facts get in the way of your moronic conspiracy theories.
Jay, unfortunately, its you that’s the moron and a very gullible one at that!!
So explain to me Seamus, what agenda are you accusing TheJournal.ie of? What is the motive of TheJournal.ie in promoting pro-immigration propaganda? Who is making that decision and what do they have to gain? Who else is part of this overarching media conspiracy? Is it controlled centrally? By the Jews perhaps, or lizard people?
You are the sort of babbling moron that we laugh at the Americans about on their right-wing media. You have zero ability to understand anything more complex then a ham sandwich. I’ve met 5-year olds with a more subtle and nuanced understanding of geopolitics than you. And the worst thing is that you’re beyond help. You were probably born beyond help. Some things will always be beyond the capability of some people. I’d sooner teach calculus to my dog then make you a functioning human being.
Good I’m getting sick of the site of them!
You do know that as part of the agreement with Turkey is that for every person that goes to Turkey, One Registered Refugee comes into Europe and it’s just to clear the Island of Greece. Are you okay with that?
“Human Rights” Lefties interfering… They are not migrants, they are chancers..Did they do any protesting to stop the human smugglers packing dinghies and drowning thousands of people? No of course not.
wow a 100 sent back. should be sending 1000 a day or more until we get rid of every last one of them
Well in a sense they’re justified in feeling that way. No one was opening their borders to them when they were fleeing war. Nor the Iraqis.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I have no issues with genuine Syrian families taking refuge here or anywhere in Europe while their country is having the sh 1 t bombed out of it. But as this ‘controversial’ scheme is showing, that’s not what Merkel has invited over.
That was in response to Original Cynic. Damn it journal get your reply button working
Testing “reply”.
It’s working.
Merely pointing out that the situation is becoming even more chaotic with migrant groups now turning on each other.
Job well done lads
‘Underage’ Migrant Rapes 15 Year Old on Second in SwedenDay http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/04/05/underage-migrant-rapes-15-year-old-sweden/
How many sexual assaults and rapes until a halt is put to this madness, or is it considered collateral damage?
The Che Guevera tshirt wearing,safe space do-gooders expect us to get on with it,and tolerate the intolerant I reckon.
They have white privilege so it’s not rape. Geez guys, open a feminist textbook!
Jesus, I’ve seen higher intellectual capacity in a jar of mayonnaise. It’s like reading crayon scribbles of the mentally disabled.
Why wasn’t the tagline #controversial used when thousands of illegal economic migrants arrived from Turkey and were allowed stay?
WHAT ABOUT TURKEYS SECTARIANISM TOWARDS THEM AS THEY WOULD BE SHIA’S??? THAT IS WHY TURKEY IS HELPING ISIS???
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29528482
“”Our biggest problem was our allies,” Mr Biden told students at the Harvard Kennedy School.
“The Turks… the Saudis, the Emirates, etc, what were they doing? They were so determined to take down (Syrian President Bashar al) Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens, thousands of tonnes of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad.”
These policies ended up helping militants linked to al-Qaeda and ultimately IS, he said.
Mr Biden also claimed that Turkey admitted it had let too many foreign fighters cross its border into Syria. ”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-25/meet-man-who-funds-isis-bilal-erdogan-son-turkeys-president
It’s amazing what mass brain washing does when people think imaginary lines between country’s made by governments and men in power to hold on to their money is more important than children starving. What a cold race we have become
The only people with washed-up brains are left wing bigots. Mass immigration is not solution to the world’s problems. Simply because the “West”does not have enough money, resources, space to accommodate all who would like to move in here. Not to mention “cultural differences” and head hacking of course. Get this simple truth into your empty heads.
get them all out of here. plenty of countries like them, let them stay there.. They are just here for the benefits.. until we are sending 1000+ a day home I wont be happy
A bit like jesus and no room at the inn
Your right.that was another made up story
I prefer the story of the trojan horse myself for an appropriate analogy.
A bureaucratic ” solution ” to a humanitarian crisis.,
A group of Pakistani men who are chancing their arm because they know they won’t get an actual work visa is not a humanitarian crisis.
get every last one of them out of here.
have your say