Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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191. To ask the Minister for Health when work will commence on the new paediatric OPD and urgent care satellite centre in Blanchardstown Hospital; the number of patients to be provided for; when it is scheduled to open; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39283/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Planning permission was granted for the new children’s hospital, as well as for two Paediatric OPD and Urgent Care Satellite Centres at Tallaght and Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown, in April of this year, clearing the way for enabling works which began this summer on the campus of St. James's Hospital. The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board is currently evaluating the tenders, received at the end of October, for the main and specialist contractors for the new children’s hospital and for the two satellite centres. It is expected that the contracts for the satellite centres at Tallaght and Connolly Hospital will be awarded in Q1 2017 and that the centres can open in 2018, significantly enhancing access to urgent care and outpatient services for children from the Greater Dublin Area. Building work on the main site is expected to be completed by 2020.

The satellite centres will be an integral part of, and come under the governance of, the new children’s hospital. This will include staffing, quality assurance, education and training, and branding. In addition, staff of the main hospital will rotate through the centres.

Each centre will provide urgent care as well as secondary outpatient services including rapid access general paediatric clinics. The aim is to improve geographic access to urgent care for children in the Greater Dublin Area and support primary and community care paediatrics, as well as reducing Emergency Department and outpatient attendance at the main site.

Each centre will provide consultant-led urgent care from staff of the new children’s hospital with observation beds (4-6 hour) and appropriate diagnostics. Each centre is projected to deal with 25,000 urgent care attendances per annum.

The satellite centres will also provide general community and paediatric clinics including developmental paediatrics, multidisciplinary care for children with chronic stable conditions and other outpatient services. Each centre is expected to cater for a minimum of 15,000 outpatient attendances per annum.

Child sexual abuse unit examination, observation and therapy rooms will be provided in the satellite centres. The satellite centre at Blanchardstown will also include two HSE paediatric care primary care dental services operating theatres.