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Minister for Health, Simon Harris has today (Tuesday) announced the publication of the General Scheme of the Children’s Health Bill 2017. This will create a single statutory entity to run the new national Children’s Hospital.
The new body will take over the services of the existing three Dublin children’s hospitals, (Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, Temple Street Children’s University Hospital, and the National Children’s Hospital at Tallaght Hospital), and run the new children’s hospital, which is being built on a campus shared with St James’s Hospital, as well as the paediatric outpatient and urgent care centres at Connolly and Tallaght Hospitals.
Minister Harris said, “This is a very important step on the road towards the new children’s hospital and follows the Government decision in April to approve the construction investment for the hospital and associated outpatient and urgent care centres. This new hospital is an extraordinary opportunity to transform paediatric services for children in Ireland by bringing together patients and staff from across the three existing children’s hospitals into a single organisation, which will improve the experience and outcomes for children and their families.”
The Minister contkinuedd,“This Bill provides for the establishment of a single body to govern and manage paediatric services, as well as to facilitate planning for the transition of staff and services to the outpatient and urgent care centres which will open several years ahead of the new children’s hospital opening. It will also support the organisation of the clinical and non-clinical services in an integrated manner across the existing sites before the move to the new hospital.”
As a body corporate established by an Act of the Oireachtas, the new entity will have the powers and functions it needs as the national tertiary paediatric service with the necessary status to take on a leadership role nationally in relation to paediatric healthcare and as an international player in paediatric research and innovation.
