Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 12 July 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health
Update on New National Children’s Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board
Mr. Phelim Devine:
So the Deputy understands the timing, I refer to May 2022. I will read it because the Deputy has the report. STS stated:
Many of the theatre supply air diffusers appear to be positioned close to the theatre walls. The efficient distribution of air within the theatre may be compromised by the layout.
It did not state there were any generic faults, as the Deputy read out in the November report - it did state that in the November report.
Once we got those reports, our design team, who are responsible for the design of the theatres, reviewed them. Our design team told us that the performance of the theatres was in accordance with the health technical memoranda-health building notes, HTM-HBN, guidance documents. They are guidance documents. They are not standards; they are guidance documents. The design team then went off and did industry-recognised computer modelling to prove and demonstrate that those theatres, with the grilles in the position they are in, perform equally or better than stated in the HTM guidance.