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A “SERIOUS LETTER” written by twelve paediatric surgeons have expressed “significant concerns” around staffing levels within the new National Children’s Hospital, the Dáil heard today.
In a letter to the chair of the board of Children’s Health Ireland, the surgeons in the department of paediatric surgery and urology across the group said there was a risk to the provision of safe and sustainable surgical services within the new hospital.
They say that the national model of care for paediatric surgery “clearly outlines” the need for 17 paediatric surgeons by 2028.
The dozen signatories say that there is an implementation plan to step up from the current workforce by recruiting between one and two surgeons per year until 2028.
However, the surgeons say that the recommended workforce of 17 paediatric surgeons has not been included in the definitive business case for the new Children’s Hospital.
They said: “This will result in failure to implement this model of care, which poses a risk to the provision of paediatric surgical services nationally and will impact negatively on the provision of safe and sustainable surgical services within the new Children’s hospital.
“This is at a time when there is significant ongoing pressure for paediatric surgeons to meet HSE targets for new [Out Patients Department] appointments, while continuing to deal with the growing elective surgery waiting lists.”
The letter was also sent to Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, CHI chief executive Lucy Nugent, and HSE CEO Bernard Gloster.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald raised the matter with the Taoiseach today stating that the surgeons outline “bizarrely that the plans for opening the new children’s hospital will see it understaffed from day one”.
“The surgeons believe they have been ignored and that the recommended workforce of 17 paediatric surgeons has not been factored in.
“This hospital is now delayed five years and there still is no proper plan to open it,” she said.
In response, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said there is always a debate around the proper commissioning and staffing of a hospital, particularly in the context of “movement from older facilities to a newer facility”.
He said it is his understanding that Children’s Health Ireland has been working on the matter for quite some time and that there has been a whole range of structures set in place to facilitate a smooth transition from the existing paediatric hospitals and tertiary hospitals to the new national children’s hospital.
“I accept, however, that this will be on a scale never experienced before, particularly in paediatric medicine.
“In my view, the new facility will be state of the art. There will be a huge step change in terms of health and we need to match that with the required staffing levels.”
CHI has been contacted for comment.
The letter comes as the new health minister said the hospital may not open to patients until 2026, due to clinical concerns about moving sick children from the existing hospitals during the winter months.
The large-scale operation would require parts of Dublin to be closed overnight as children are transported across the city by ambulance to the new hospital.
Labour’s Alan Kelly said yesterday that he had serious reservations about whether the hospital will open next year, predicting that it could be 2027 before patients are seen.
With reporting by Christina Finn
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The biggest ‘sh##show’ imaginable. I point the finger fairly and squarely at Simple Simon Harris. The cost is truly astonishing followed closely by incompetence on a stratospheric level. Let us not forget the poor kiddies that are being deprived of the care they deserve, all because of a government run by gimps.
@Padraic O’ Sullivan: Ah yes, Dr Reilly, should be called Little Jack Horner, as he had his thumb in many pies!
@Padraic O’ Sullivan: I’ve never understood why this wasn’t built at the Connolly hospital site in Blanchardstown. An absolute and enduring fiasco from start to eventual finish.
@honey badger: from what I heard it was because the consultants (probably some that signed this letter) wouldn’t move there, I wouldn’t take that as gospel though.
@honey badger: It would have been ideal, on the M50, readily accessible from anywhere, but no, vested interests take precedence!
@honey badger: or maybe in the midlands where it’s central to the whole country
@The next small thing: I have family in there and heard Southside consultants had the final say on it. Made to suit the Blackrock brigade a F the rest of us as per usual. No real surprises there to be honest.
@Andrew Kenny: FG gave the green light to proceed construction in the heart of Dublin City, we all know it should have been built in Blanchardstown, heavy traffic has always been a problem in this part of the city and now it’s going to be much heavier and will cause longer delays for everyone trying to negotiate traffic especially for people living in the area and commuters heading west towards Palmerstown, Lucan, Leixlip, Cellbridge.
@Adam H2022: anyone who thinks medical consultants had ANY say in where hospitals are located has no understanding of how the health system in Ireland works. All decisions like this are made by the department of health and politicians
No need to worry gang… it will be at least another year before this is open..no need to panic
@David Cotter: a complete joke
@Chutes Idiot: you’re optimistic… Wasn’t that hospital moved to a “2030 Project” some days after the November elections? I wish I were wrong though
Great breakdown on the fiasco here:
Shows this disaster is now well known around the World. I’ve also heard Bam might ask for another €853 million, pushing the total cost well past €3 billion.
@David Jordan: This is what happens when Student Union activists are running the government, like getting children to operate a nuclear reactor!
Well of course there’s going to be staff shortages. They’ve built a building. They haven’t built any kind of medical system that anyone in there right mind would want to work in. How any of the staff turn up for work everyday is beyond me. I mean frontline staff that are being ran into the ground day in day out. Having a recruitment embargo on irish nurses whole recruiting them from abroad is just a slap in the face to any junior nurse that was going to enter the system. If they have any sense they will be long gone and god bless them in there lives. The NCH was a ego project for fg.
Exactly where are the staff to treat the kiddies commung from .there is a lack of nurses and Dr’s as it is in ireland due to the extra long hours and awfull pay
@Karen Marten: “awful pay” Doctors!
@Michael Reilly: there are a thousand vacancies for consultants. They won’t return to Ireland while the conditions are so appalling. What has the minister for health to say about all this?
In another 2 years the hospital still won’t be open but the sick kids will be living out there grandparents back garden in a lag cabin
Import the third world, Become the third world!
POTA!
Enough of this debacle now, no point contributing to dialogue on this sad happening for children of this isle, it is what it is let’s wait until the doors are open.
Unless the minister gets the working conditions right for the medical and nursing staff the crisis continues.
Doctors do you real jobs and turn up for work at weekends
have your say