The Minister for Health, Simon Harris is sponsoring the Bill which is currently being considered at its fifth stage before Seanad Eireann. It is envisaged that the matter will be ready for debate before the Dail Eireann presently.
The primary purpose of the Bill is to establish a body corporate, Children’s Health Ireland, to provide paediatric services, consolidating the paediatric services currently provided by the three children’s hospitals, Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin; Temple Street Children’s University Hospital, and the paediatric services provided at the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Dublin, Incorporating the National Children’s Hospital, commonly known as Tallaght Hospital.
Children’s Health Ireland will become the single national tertiary/quaternary centre for highly specialised paediatric care for children from all over Ireland with the critical mass to deliver best outcomes.
Comment: The Sector is greatly stretched for resources and clearly has scope for improved efficiencies and regularisation. The hope would be that the correct infrastructure is implemented for the most vulnerable in society.