Children's hospital bed numbers
Deputy Shortall asked whether the national children's hospital’s bed count had been cut from 380 to 300. The Minister clarified that 300 inpatient en suite rooms plus 60 critical care and 20 CAMHS beds still total 380, and the Deputy thanked him.
I wish to raise the issue of the long-awaited new national children's hospital, which cannot open soon enough. The understanding all along has been that there will be 380 beds in the facility. This week, Children's Health Ireland, CHI, released an update video about the hospital in which reference was made to 300 beds. Can the Minister clarify if that was an error on the part of CHI? If so, it would obviously need to be corrected. Are there any circumstances in which the number of beds could have been reduced from 380 to 300? That would be entirely unacceptable and would constitute a major problem. Will the Minister clarify the position? If he cannot do so now, will he come back with a clarification later in the day?
Comment on this
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I will get further clarification for her directly from the Minister for Health. My understanding is that there will be 300 individual inpatient en suite rooms, each of which will include a place for parents or guardians to sleep. In addition, there will be 60 critical care beds and 20 child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, beds. That will be 380 beds. I have not seen the video. CHI may have just been referring to the 300 individual inpatient beds. I say very clearly to the Deputy that the information I have refers to 300 individual inpatient rooms, 60 critical care beds, 20 CAMHS beds and 93 day beds. I will raise it directly with the Minister, Deputy Donnelly.