'Madness' to locate children's hospital on two sites

It was "absolute madness" to suggest a national children's hospital could be divided between two sites, the chief executive of the Health Service Executive Prof Brendan Drumm has said.

He felt such a decision could be challenged under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. "A country has to provide the best possible care it can for children based on its economic capacity," he added.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1's Marian Finucane programme yesterday, he said: "Funny how we went from unanimity on one site to suddenly splitting ourselves when it didn't suit us."

He said five possible sites for a children's hospital had been viewed in Dublin, in line with recommendations that it be linked to a general hospital.

Tallaght did not have the necessary adult tertiary specialties. Beamont had access problems. St Vincent's had problems where a number of tertiary specialties were concerned.

"It came down essentially, at a very early stage, as to whether this would be sited on the St James's site or the Mater site," he said.

"Now somebody seems to have identified in their mind some magical site in Dublin that we can all get free access to and we can all drive there in 20 minutes in the morning or evening, but nobody has actually come forward to identify this site."

He dismissed arguments about access to the Mater site.

"The transport thing is a figment . . ." he said. Looking across the world to such centres in Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia, Birmingham, London, "they're all in city centre locations".

"We've either got some magical view in this country or we're using this," he said.

"The saddest thing out of this will be if there is any suggestion, based on theology or anything else, that the children of this country will have to continue to live with tertiary care services for complex issues across two sites," he said.

Earlier on the programme Dr Pat Doherty, chairman of the medical board at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children at Crumlin, described the Mater site as "sub-optimal". That was the opinion of staff and the board at Crumlin, he said.

No paediatrician had been involved in choosing the Mater site, he said. That was "a fatal flaw in the decision-making process".

He called for an international peer review of the decision, which he said could be concluded in weeks.

He agreed a single site was essential and that fragmentation would be "a recipe for potential disaster".

Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1's This Week programme yesterday, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, who is chairman of the board at Our Lady's hospital, said he was "a little upset" not to be informed by the board prior to its announcement last week that it would not co-operate with the national children's hospital project at the Mater site.

Dialogue was the way forward, he said.

A senior Tallaght hospital source said last night that planning an agreed future with Crumlin would be "very consistent with the hospital's [ Tallaght's] thinking".