Health Service Planning, Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children,
Crumlin, Dublin (EIRE)
Client Issue: Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children Crumlin is an acute paediatric teaching hospital with 243 beds, employing 1200 staff & is built on a site of approximately 5 hectares which was provided by the Archbishop of Dublin. It is Ireland's largest paediatric hospital & is responsible for the provision of majority of tertiary care services for children & medical research for childhood illnesses. It first opened its doors in 1956 & was specifically designed to care for & treat sick children. In 2002/03 the Parents Association had been expressing concerns about standards of provision for their children in the hospital, but felt unable to make any impact on the authorities. Thus they commissioned us to do a survey of the prevailing standards & prepare a report for the stakeholders.
Solution: We carried out a in depth functional suitability study with an evaluation of all of the spaces within the hospital, measuring each of them & comparing our findings with current standard guidance (as in the British Department of Health Building Notes). The findings were dramatic. Nearly every space was substandard – very seriously so. Only a new Theatre Block which was under construction,
provided adequate space. The general quality of the fabric was extremely poor & our recommendation was that the position was not retrievable & that the hospital should be completely replaced.
Outcome: The Department of Health accepted this judgement & formed a planning consortium to produce a planning Brief for a new Children’s Hospital adjacent to the existing site. However more recently, the Department of Health commissioned a study from McKinsey & Co on the Strategic Organisation of Tertiary Paediatric Services for Ireland. That Report, recommended a single Paediatric Hospital located in Dublin & co-terminous with an adult Teaching Hospital. The Department of Health has now determined that the Children’s Hospital should be coterminous with the Mater Hospital & the group responsible for preparing the Brief for the Children’s Hospital is nearing the end of its work.