Expert reviewThe Health Service Executive is seeking to appoint an expert from the UK to carry out a review of tertiary paediatric services around the State.
A HSE spokesman said the review would examine whether all services should be located on a single site or whether they could be based in a number of different locations within one overall hospital network.
It is understood that the HSE is seeking the new review at the instigation of the Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney.
It is understood that while a paediatric expert from the UK has been approached about the task, the person concerned has not yet formally accepted.
The move comes at a time when the future configuration of specialist paediatric services in Dublin is unclear.
Last month Ms Harney said she did not want to see specialist services for children spread across a number of sites. The Minister is to determine shortly whether the largest children's hospital in the State, Our Lady's in Crumlin, should be rebuilt on its present location or whether services should be transferred to a new location.
The Taoiseach last week gave an assurance that plans to develop a new children's hospital, to replace the existing facility at Temple Street, on the campus of the Mater hospital would go ahead.
It is understood that senior figures at Temple Street have proposed to the Department of Health and the HSE that specialist paediatric services for the capital could be developed on the Mater campus site where there will still be space even after the completion of the current development project.
The future location of specialist services for children, particularly surgery, has been a hugely contentious issue for around a decade.
In 1998, following the failure of the three Dublin paediatric hospitals to agree on the nature and structure of a consultant post which had arisen at Crumlin, a committee of Comhairle na nOspideal was established to examine this whole area.
Comhairle recommended the concentration of a small number of specialist paediatric and neonatal surgical operations in Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin, with all three paediatric hospitals continuing to provide non-specialist paediatric surgery and less complex urology services.
Comhairle maintained that a small percentage of the children undergoing paediatric surgical procedures at Temple Street would require access to the specialist surgical services under consideration.
However, strong concerns were raised from within Temple Street in relation to the proposal to transfer some services to Crumlin.
In 2002 the then Minister for Health Micheál Martin announced a further review of the issue following talks with Comhairle and the then Eastern Regional Health Authority. He said at the time that he wanted to explore the possibility of developing some highly specialised services for children on an all-island basis.
It is understood that recently the Council for Children's Hospital Care has also submitted new proposals to resolve the difficulties in relation to the future of paediatric surgical services. These have been under consideration for some months by the National Hospitals Office of the HSE.
