St James' Hospital location for Children's Hospital is 'wrong, wrong, wrong', says campaigning paediatrician
A massive 50,000 signatures have been collected supporting the location of the new Children's Hospital at the James Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, just off the M50.
This is against the backdrop of the announcement that the hospital will in fact be located at St James Hospital in Dublin city centre, with preparatory work to start this summer.
Those who oppose the new location at St James' in Dublin say there is no medical reasoning for it to be built there, and that St James' is already congested.
In a statement, acting Health Minister Leo Varadkar said: "Building a hospital of this size on the St James's campus will inevitably mean disruption but the St James's Board have embraced this project fully.
"Co-location of these two leading hospitals will result in a campus of clinical, educational and research excellence that can attract the best and brightest across all disciplines.
"In the future, the development of a new Coombe Hospital on the campus will bring further benefits, with children and young people, mothers and babies all benefiting from the tri-location of adult, maternity and paediatric services."
However, one of Ireland's leading paediatricians Dr Fin Breatnach said the decision to locate the Children's Hospital at St James' is "madness" and urged more people to sign the petition.
He said: "We have power to change this decision and make the right decision for the kids of this country, not just for this generation but for the next three or four generations.
"This children's hospital is supposed to last for 100 years. It can't.
"It won’t be able to accommodate a maternity hospital on site and as a result of that, babies are going to die.
"This is wrong, wrong, wrong."
