Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise an issue today with the Department of Health and its Minister. While I acknowledge they are well aware of the issue, it is so important that it is worth highlighting again. My constituency of Dublin Central is home to the Rotunda Hospital, which is the busiest maternity hospital in Europe. In 2019, more than 8,000 babies were delivered in hospital. In the same year, more than 1,300 of those babies needed to be admitted to neonatal care units. The hospital is run on a break-even budget and incredible care is provided to families at very important moments in life. The hospital has, indeed, won awards for its innovative care practices. All of this is done in a building complex which dates to 1757. The Rotunda Hospital is a much-loved building in Dublin Central, but it is nonetheless an old one. In short, the hospital is trying to provide 21st-century medical care in an 18th-century infrastructural set-up. The situation is now very serious. There is a particular concern regarding the provision of best practice care in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Several reports have pointed to the suboptimal conditions in our maternity hospitals, including inadequate space and outdated facilities. Nowhere is this more critical than in the Rotunda Hospital. The standards of buildings have an impact on the quality of care received and therefore on the outcomes of that care. What we are seeing here is a false economy because the cost to families and the State when things go wrong is well known. HIQA has repeatedly stated that capital investment is needed in modern maternity facilities and buildings, and that that investment must be timely. Babies in neonatal care are the most vulnerable patients I can think of. The current position in respect of the physical infrastructure in the Rotunda Hospital is not best practice in neonatal intensive care facilities, particularly in respect of infection control, which is so meaningful for all of us at present.

I implore the HSE and the Minister for Health to address overcrowding in the Rotunda Hospital, and especially in the neonatal intensive care unit, NICU, in the short to medium term. In 2019, the director of the Rotunda Hospital warned that the overcrowding was an intolerable patient safety crisis. The Rotunda Hospital takes babies from all over Ireland into its care. The staff there are doing their best but they are now doing their best under unacceptable conditions.

The management of the Rotunda Hospital has a plan to tackle this urgent need. I am aware that in the long term, maternity services will be moved to the campus of Connolly Hospital. The 1,300 babies who need care every year, however, must be safe and cared for now and to the best of our ability. They cannot wait for 15 to 20 years. There is a significant business and medical case for the immediate development of a critical care wing on Parnell Square, which could mitigate current risks in the medium term. This would be compliant with Government policy and has already been approved by the planning department of Dublin City Council. The estimated cost of that wing is €61 million, though I accept that procurement costs are difficult to ascertain and be certain about now.

I acknowledge there is a long-term plan to move the Rotunda Hospital but investing in a medical care building now would still be an efficient use of public money. The inner city would have a high-quality medical building for use in perpetuity. We would get 15 to 20 years of safe NICU care for our most vulnerable babies, and it is really only the commissioning costs of less than €5 million that would be non-transferable. This is an excellent business case for the wing. As we have heard this week, we have not always cared in Ireland for our most vulnerable children in the way that we should. I hope the HSE, the Minister for Health and the Minister of State present will consider my points.

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