The announcement by the Minister for Health, James Reilly that the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) is to move from Holles Street to a site adjacent to St Vincent's University Hospital is most welcome. The development, which is scheduled to be completed by 2018, will see an effective co-location between the maternity hospital and the acute tertiary hospital on a single site. Long in the planning, and thought to have been stymied last year when a deal to purchase an adjacent site from Nama foundered, the move is good news for both patients and staff. The purpose-built hospital will have the capacity to accommodate up to 10,000 births a year. Ante- and post-natal care will be provided in mostly single, en-suite rooms. Birthing accommodation will include a midwife-led birthing unit and dedicated birthing rooms for multiple births.
The importance of having intensive care facilities for mothers on-site was highlighted during the recent inquest into the death of Savita Halappanavar at University Hospital Galway last year. By co-locating with a major general hospital, the small number of women who develop life-threatening conditions during pregnancy will, in future, benefit from purpose- buit facilities as well as the broad range of medical specialists already working at St Vincent's.
Dr Rhona Mahony, Master of the NMH, has clearly stated the buildings at Holles Street are no longer fit for purpose. Parts of the aesthetically attractive hospital date back to the 1700s and are steeped in the capital's history. But it had become increasingly difficult and at times a risk to patients to provide a cramped service to some 9,500 mothers and their infants; these numbers represent an almost 50 per cent increase in the number of deliveries at the hospital in the last 20 years.
The inclusion of NMH in the newly configured Dublin East hospital group facilitated this progressive move. The Department of Health must now clarify the future of the Rotunda hospital, which has been cleaved from its natural partner at the Mater by the recent shake-up.