Hospital review group gets extension

Minister for Health James Reilly has agreed to an extension of the deadline for the receipt of a report by the review group on the national children’s hospital.

The group, chaired by Dr Frank Dolphin, was set up by Dr Reilly after An Bord Pleanála rejected the original plans for the €650 million hospital at the Mater site in Dublin’s north inner city

The Dolphin group, which was tasked with looking at the implications of the decision by An Bord Pleanála and drawing up an options document for Government, had originally been due to submit its report next week.

However, since the planning authority’s rejection of the original plan, nearly 20 locations have been mooted as alternative sites for the proposed hospital as well as a revised scheme for the Mater site.

Dr Reilly said today that because of additional sites and workload placed on the group he had granted a 14-day extension to the group’s deadline.

Speaking earlier, in relation to the additional sites being proposed, he said: “I’m not looking at them all…that’s what I appointed the review group to do and they will make their judgments based on the skillsets they have…and I have every faith in them.”

He was speaking at the launch of a new early intervention back pain programme for Aviva Health members at the Aviva stadium in Dublin.

Separately, the Minister denied suggestions the Government was delaying the publication of an official review of smaller hospitals which is likely to recommend a major reassignment of regional services including the closure of certain emergency units.

The Framework for the Development of Smaller Hospitals report was due to be published earlier this year.

Dr Reilly said the document was “still being worked on” and would go out for consultation "shortly".

“This is a case of rebalancing hospitals and ensuring they have safe services…removing the services that can’t safely be provided and adding the services that can.”

Dr Reilly pointed to the Louth hospital in Dundalk where he said activity had been quite low prior to the replacement of its emergency department with a minor injuries unit. “The footfall in the hospital has increased considerably” since the reassignment of services at the hospital, he said.

He said he did not believe there would be political fallout as a result of the report''s recommendations as he was confident it would show that the Government was committed to smaller hospitals and to ensuring "safe practice".

"We're looking at a lot of new initiatives to take place in smaller hospitals that hither-to-fore were taking place in the larger hospitals," he said.

"If there was a battle about what was to come out of the smaller hospitals, wait for the battle with the bigger hospitals when we start taking stuff out of them which really doesn't belong there."