John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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437. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide information in relation to the design and infrastructure for the new children's hospital and, in particular, whether it will provide for dedicated ward space and services for young persons with inflammatory bowel disease; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34422/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The number of inpatient beds needed in the new children's hospital has been determined by detailed clinical activity analysis and health planning. Current clinical activity in the three Dublin children's hospitals, population growth, innovation and developments in treatments, waiting lists and unmet need have all been factored into the calculations for the inpatient bed numbers planned for the new children's hospital. All clinical specialties were considered in this health planning work.

With a very few exceptions, beds are not allocated or ring-fenced for particular conditions or services. The reason for this is to maximise the efficient use of beds depending on need. The number of children with inflammatory bowel disease requiring an inpatient bed at any one time is not constant and while one month a small number of beds might be required, in another month a greater number of beds might be required.

In contrast to the current situation, in planning the new children's hospital, the Children’s Hospital Group (CHG) has allocated beds to acute care, that is, beds for children admitted with an acute illness, the majority of whom are likely to require only a short in-patient stay. As a result of separating this cohort of children from those with chronic conditions who might require either planned or emergency admission, the CHG can allocate a group of beds for children with conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease which will be available to them when the bed is required but will be available to others also.

From an outpatient service viewpoint, the accommodation in which the gastroenterology outpatient department is situated includes clinical examination rooms, allocated rooms for the specialist nurses, rooms for the multi-disciplinary team, support rooms for children with gastrostomy feeding and rooms for outpatient investigations.

Within the theatre department, there are two endoscopy rooms which provide very significant extra capacity in terms of gastrointestinal endoscopy.

This allocation of resources has been developed with the GI team in Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin.