Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Health if the Coombe Hospital and children's ambulatory care unit, Dublin, will be moving to Tallaght Hospital, Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7807/13]

James 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 KPMG Independent Review of Maternity and Gynaecology Services in the Greater Dublin 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 foetal 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.

The proposal in 2008 was that the National Maternity Hospital be relocated to St Vincent's, the Coombe to Tallaght and the Rotunda to the Mater, and the maternity hospitals have been working with the relevant adult sites to progress this. There will be early discussions with the maternity hospitals regarding their maternity /adult co-location plans in the context of the Government decision to build the new children’s hospital on the St James’s campus. Notwithstanding this, I am committed to the intent of the report - that the Dublin maternity hospitals be located alongside adult acute services - while also bearing in mind the need to plan for the provision of tri-located paediatric , adult and maternity services, as is the intention in relation to the new children’s hospital.

With regard to the children's ambulatory care unit, the report of the Review Group on the National Children’s Hospital (Dolphin report) concluded that the existing plan for the Ambulatory and Urgent Care Centre in Tallaght must be revisited, in light of a decision made about the location of the National Children’s Hospital. The number and location of urgent care centres in the Dublin area must be determined now that the decision has been made to locate the new children's hospital on the St James campus. It is envisaged that there will be an urgent care centre or urgent care centres based on consideration of the geographical distribution of attendances and acuity of the patient. The location and number of such centres will be given careful consideration and analysis is underway to inform this in order to reach a decision as soon possible.