The HSE’s support for the Rotunda Hospital campus expansion indicates it does not envisage relocation in the next 20 years, according to Master Prof Sean Daly.
Asked by the Medical Independent (MI) about the long-proposed co-location with Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, Prof Daly said: “I think the fact the HSE is expanding the campus for us is indicative of the fact that they don’t envisage us moving within the next 20 years.”
Prof Daly also believes that the Rotunda “would always require a presence in Dublin city” and was part of “the framework” of the city.
In 2015, the Government announced that the Rotunda would move to the Connolly Hospital campus under a policy to co-locate standalone maternity hospitals with adult acute services. Connolly is a model three hospital. Currently, the Rotunda has an established intensive care pathway with the nearby Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, a major adult tertiary centre.
According to the Rotunda’s strategic plan for 2022 to 2026, the board “supports the decision to co-locate the Rotunda on the campus of a level four acute adult hospital with required intensive care infrastructure and resources”. However, it had not received a funding commitment or definite timeframe for this relocation.
In the interim, the Rotunda’s existing infrastructure was “insufficient to deliver safe services”, according to the strategic plan. It stated “mitigation strategies” had been developed to provide new physical infrastructure on the hospital campus over the subsequent years.
The HSE and Rotunda have invested in infrastructure nearby to the hospital to create additional space.
The Executive has acquired Hampson House at Clerys Quarter and a building on Lower Dominick Street. This space is expected to become operational in 2025.
The Rotunda has also purchased property on Cavendish Row at a reported cost of approximately €4.2 million.
MI requested a figure for HSE investment from the HSE, RCSI Hospitals, and the Rotunda, but none was provided.
A Department of Health spokesperson said it is Government policy to co-locate standalone maternity
hospitals with adult acute hospitals, including moving the Rotunda to the Connolly campus.
The tender process for a main contractor to construct the new National Maternity Hospital on the campus of St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, is currently in train.
However, the relocation projects for the Rotunda, University Maternity Hospital Limerick, and the Coombe Women and Infants Hospital, Dublin, “are all still at an early stage”. A firm timeline or funding requirement has not yet been established.
“With an extended timeframe expected for delivery of the new Rotunda, capital investment in the existing hospital is justified to maintain service delivery. The current fit-out of the new Rotunda Hampson House at Clerys Quarter is a key enabling project for future development on the Rotunda campus, including a new critical
care wing.”
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