Concerns around the “construction quality” in parts of the new national children’s hospital were flagged with senior Government officials in a report which also warned of “continued timeline uncertainty” around the completion of the development.
The report, which was compiled by officials for a Department of Health oversight group in late May, said that the board overseeing the development of the project “will not accept a building that does not meet the required quality standards”. The HSE said that it “supports this position”.
“The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) report continued challenges with respect to construction quality,” the report states.
Officials were told that the number of rooms that had been “accepted” as being delivered was 60 per cent of the full programme of work.
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“The net room acceptance figure is 2,292 vs 4,311 in BAM’s programme, 60% of programme delivered.”
The HSE also said the builders of the project, BAM, had issued a “new close-out plan” which the board reported to be “poorly planned” and “already behind schedule”.
“[The NPHDB] are working to mitigate this where possible and have advised that they will not accept a building that does not meet the required quality standards. [The] HSE supports this.”
In a separate meeting of the department’s oversight group in March, the minutes of which have been seen by The Irish Times, officials were told that three potential names for the new hospital were to be submitted to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly once a branding exercise was complete. The three potential names have not yet been revealed.
At the March meeting it also emerged that a €41 million contingency budget for Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) has been approved, while issues around the car park were also discussed.
The meeting heard that “only one tenderer remains in the process, resulting in a risk to securing value for money”.
The NPHDB recommended “continuing with the process” to find the “current market offering” but the group was told “mitigation strategies” were being developed.
Officials also discussed risks to the planned commissioning time of the hospital, which included “continued timeline uncertainty” around the completion of the development.
In a statement, a BAM spokesperson said: “BAM is fully confident in the quality of the construction work for this world-class hospital. We commission regular internal and external assurance audits as part of the routine construction process to ensure our work meets the specified standards. Frequent inspections by the customer’s design team and the external BCAR [Building Control Amendment Regulations] verifier are an inherent part of the project delivery.
“The NPHDB has periodically made public the nonconformance statistics for the project and these are low for a building of this scale. This is a normal part of the construction process and nonconformance close-out continues as part of the completion process.
“The handover of rooms is a routine element of the project which has clearly been affected by the level of client-instructed change. BAM continues to provide the board with monthly programme updates as we near completion of the build phase. These reflect the ongoing high degree of change and the significant additional resources we are deploying above and beyond our agreed work programme.”
According to the most recent estimates, the new hospital, which will cost €2.24 billion, is due to be completed by contractors BAM next February and then officially opened after a six-month commissioning process.
Last month, The Irish Times revealed that the NPHDB said that BAM has yet to deliver a compliant programme of works.
BAM rejected claims that there were resourcing issues on site.
The development of the hospital has been mired in controversy for years as the cost has increased, while relations between the NPHDB and the contractor have been strained throughout.
At a Cabinet meeting in February, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly confirmed the full cost including commissioning has now risen to more than €2.2 billion. The original estimated cost of the new hospital was €650 million.
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