A doctor at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, said yesterday that the new national children's hospital should not be a high-rise development, as is planned.
Dr Billy Casey, who was speaking at the opening of a new unit at Crumlin hospital, was reiterating the point made by several colleagues in recent months that the size of the Mater site, in their opinion, may cause problems.
A firm of UK consultants is currently drawing up a design brief for the new hospital and Minister for Health Mary Harney has reassured the board of Crumlin hospital that she will not hesitate to have the decision to locate the new hospital at the Mater site re-examined if they conclude the site is inadequate.
The consultants, RKW, are due to report next month. The new national children's hospital would see the children's hospitals at Crumlin, Tallaght and Temple Street merged into one.
The new unit that officially opened at Crumlin yesterday is a transitional care unit, which will free up beds in intensive care units and allow families to become more involved in their children's rehabilitation. It is the first of its kind in the country.
The unit offers children who are dependent on ventilation a friendly environment where they can be prepared to be discharged or moved to a medical facility closer to home. Previously, children requiring long periods of respiratory support could only be cared for in intensive care units but this development will allow much needed ICU beds to be freed up for admissions of critically ill children or those requiring post operative care.
The new facility, which cost €1.4 million, provides full-time care for five children and was officially opened yesterday by the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin.
