Public support is vital to Childrens’ Hospital completion
The Irish Examiner writes:
Anticipation is building among parents of sick children living in Munster as a planning application edges forward for the long-awaited dedicated Children’s Hospital at Cork University Hospital. While children are currently being housed in two former adult wards, momentum is building around plans for the €60m purpose-built 78-bed facility, to be located on the existing grounds of CUH.
Hospital staff are going to phenomenal lengths to care for their young patients, but they are very aware of the urgent need to upgrade the facilities.
Dr Dave Mullane, Clinical Director of Paediatrics at CUH, said: “Of the 78 single, en-suite rooms, six will be high-dependency rooms providing 1-to-1 nursing care for those sicker children who need more intensive treatment and observation.
“We will have dedicated Children’s haematology and oncology unit which will relocate from Mercy University Hospital. This includes 4 large single isolation rooms, a parents lounge and its own external entrance to reduce infection risk for these vulnerable children with cancers.
A planning application for the proposed five-storey Children’s Hospital will be submitted to Cork City Council before Christmas. After years of waiting, sick children and their parents and the staff at CUH and MUH all hope to see the project start in earnest within the next six to 12 months.
“It has been a frustratingly slow process for all concerned, with the project group for this build meeting for more than ten years but without the required state capital funding to allow for progression of this vital Children’s Hospital in Cork” said Dr Mullane. “For the children and their parents, however, we hope it will have been worth the wait.”
The new Children’s Hospital at CUH will also cater for more ambulatory care, in line with the national strategy to deliver more care closer to home and avoiding hospital admission whenever possible.
The new five-storey building will include in-patient wards on the top three floors, giving admitted children more access to light and outdoor courtyard space. Four children’s operating theatres will be on the ground floor, equipped with child-friendly MRI and other x-ray equipment.
