Patients escape injury as Rotunda ceiling falls

A SERIOUS accident was averted at Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital earlier this month after a ceiling collapsed on a busy corridor.

The ceiling on the corridor leading to operating theatres on the hospital’s first floor gave way while women were undergoing surgery on a busy Thursday afternoon.

Operations at the 254-year-old maternity hospital, which has been suffering from overcrowding in the last few years, were not affected by the collapse.

No one was passing through the corridor when the ceiling fell, master of the Rotunda Dr Sam Coulter-Smith said yesterday.

He said a portion of the old “lath and plaster” ceiling gave way, probably due to an old leak from pipes contained behind it.

The corridor was closed immediately and the theatres were temporarily accessed via lifts from the floors above and below.

“It didn’t impact on our ability to perform surgery; the area was deemed to be safe and surgery went on as normal on the Friday,” Dr Coulter-Smith said.

Patients, transferred to a waiting area outside the theatre, would have witnessed the collapse, he said, which looked “quite dramatic”.

The repair work to the ceiling was carried out over the weekend and the corridor has since reopened.

Engineers had also examined other ceilings in the area, Dr Coulter-Smith said, and had reported that no other work needed to be done.

The hospital, which has a capacity of 197, has come under increased pressure in the last few years, along with the capital’s two other maternity hospitals, due to a baby boom.

Extra beds have had to be introduced on to wards to cope with the increased numbers.

Dr Coulter-Smith said he expected between 9,200 and 9,300 babies to be delivered at the hospital this year, “probably 2,500 more than we should have for the building.

“We need a new hospital capable of delivering 10,000 a year,” he said.

A HSE-commissioned KPMG Review of Maternity Gynaecology Services in the Greater Dublin Area,published in February 2009, supported a plan to relocate the three maternity hospitals in Dublin.

The Rotunda was to move to a shared site with the Mater hospital.

So far there have been no set dates for when the relocation might occur, although the HSE has said the plans were progressing.