Written answers

Thursday, 29 November 2012

Department of Health

Maternity Services

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Health the position regarding previously announced plans for the Maternity Hospital at Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, if he will give assurances to the community; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53554/12]

Photo of James ReillyJames Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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A comprehensive review of maternity and gynaecology services in the greater Dublin area was completed in 2008. The 2008 KPMG Independent Review of Maternity and Gynaecology Services in the Greater Dublin Area report noted ‘it is well recognised that for optimal clinical outcome, maternity services should be co-located with adult acute services, or in the case of neonatology and fetal medicine tri-located with adult and paediatric services’. The report noted that Dublin’s model of stand alone maternity hospitals is not the norm internationally and recommended that the Dublin maternity hospitals should be co-located with adult acute services and that one of the three new Dublin maternity facilities should be built on the site of the new national paediatric hospital. Maternity and paediatric service co-location has advantages for infants with congenital malformations, for fetal medicine or complications which require neonatal surgery. Maternity and adult service co-location has advantages for mothers in providing on-campus rapid and ready access to non-obstetric specialist expertise, and to specialist surgery and intensive care in the case of major obstetric emergency.

In this context the proposal in 2008 was that the National Maternity Hospital be relocated to St Vincent's Hospital, the Coombe to Tallaght Hospital and the Rotunda to the Mater Hospital, and the maternity hospitals have been working with the relevant adult sites to progress this.

Recently the Government made the decision to build the new national children’s hospital on the St James’s campus. Given the need to plan for the provision of maternity services along with paediatric and adult services on the site selected for the new children's hospital, there will be early discussions with the Dublin maternity hospitals regarding their maternity /adult co-location plans. My Department will engage in discussion with the Coombe Hospital in relation to co-location plans in the near future.

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