Paediatric consultant left in tears after seeing design flaws in National Children’s Hospital

A Paediatric doctor said design flaws in the new National Children’s Hospital (NCH) – the cost of which is €2.24bn – left them in tears when they were taken on a preliminary tour of the facility.

The project, beset by delays and cost overruns, received yet another setback this month when it was confirmed the hospital is unlikely to open to patients until 2026, 12 years after its intended start date.

One Dublin consultant who spoke to the Irish Mail on Sunday this weekend said they ‘couldn’t believe’ what was being presented to them during a tour of the unfinished hospital late last year.

The senior doctor said two of the six consulting rooms in a specific department were not wheelchair-accessible. After the tour, they said medics told the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) in ‘no uncertain terms that we were not happy’.

The consultant told the MoS: ‘I would be embarrassed to bring patients into those tiny, cramped rooms, which are actually no improvement on what we have already. Very basic things like wheelchair accessibility were missing. We were presented with the rooms as a fait accompli. I understand modifications have been made now, though we’ve had no more onsite visits since.’

This week, it emerged that BAM, the Dutch firm building the hospital, is initiating High Court proceedings against the NPHDB after it rejected a conciliator’s recommendation to make additional payments of €107m to the firm.

BAM said the conciliator’s recommendation reflected the company’s ‘repeated highlighting of the fact that the primary driver of delays and additional cost on the project has been the volume and frequency of design changes requested by the client’.

The contractor also said it categorically rejects any allegations of under-performance and under-resourcing of the new hospital. BAM previously said the construction process has been ‘complex’ due to repeated changes to the hospital’s design.

The conciliator also recommended the formal completion date for the hospital – before any potential penalties could apply – be extended by more than a year. However, the hospital board rejected the recommendations.

The move means BAM will now initiate a High Court case if it wants to secure additional payments for work on the project.

The chair of the NPHDB, David Gunning, told the Public Accounts Committee earlier this month that the opening date would have to be pushed back for the sixth time.

He said: ‘The project is beset with delays and unless the behaviour of BAM is to change, we may suffer further delays into the period ahead.’

One minister familiar with the contracts said: ‘BAM can be fined €20m in rolling fines. As far as I know, if you don’t complete within the timeframes there’s a significant chance they can be fined.’