Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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In line with best international practice, it is Government policy that standalone maternity hospitals should be co-located with acute adult hospitals. The National Maternity Strategy, published in January 2016, reaffirms this commitment. In this context, the Rotunda Hospital will be relocated to the Connolly Hospital campus. Co-location will facilitate the provision of an appropriate environment within all our maternity hospitals and units to enable the delivery of a modern, safe, quality service where the woman’s need for privacy and dignity is respected.

As the Deputy will be aware, the new children's hospital was originally planned for the Mater site and it was proposed, as recommended in the KPMG report (Independent Review of Maternity and Gynaecology Services in the Greater Dublin Area) 2008, to redevelop the Rotunda Hospital on the Mater site. However, following the Government decision in 2012 to locate the new children’s hospital at the St James’s campus, it was necessary to revisit the earlier decisions regarding the relocation of both the Rotunda and the Coombe Women and Infants University hospitals.

A detailed review was undertaken by my Department, which considered a number of potential host sites for both hospitals, examining demographics, a range of clinical criteria as well as planning risks and site capacity. The Department engaged with a number of divisions within the HSE and with the Masters of both the Rotunda and the Coombe as part of the review process. In June 2015 Government decided that the Coombe would be relocated to the St James's Hospital campus, while the Rotunda would be redeveloped on the Connolly Hospital campus.

More recently I have also engaged with the Master of the Rotunda, the RCSI Hospital Group and the HSE in relation to the relocation of the Rotunda to Connolly, including meeting with these parties in July of this year.

Project Ireland 2040 provides €10.9 billion for health capital developments across the country, including funding to support implementation of the National Maternity Strategy. The relocation of the Rotunda Hospital to the Connolly campus is one of the key infrastructure projects which will be funded under Project Ireland 2040. It is important that we carefully plan all projects to meet population health needs and achieve value for money. This work is ongoing. While I am not in position to outline the year on year provisions for any individual maternity hospital project at this stage, this will be considered through the process of the determination of service priorities and in the context of Health capital planning.

The Deputy will appreciate that the Rotunda relocation project is at an early stage and will be required to progress through appraisal, planning, design and tender before a firm timeline or funding requirement can be established. However, the Project Briefs for the relocation of the three stand alone maternity hospitals, namely the Rotunda, the Coombe and University Maternity Hospital Limerick, to acute hospital campuses, in line with the National Maternity Review will be progressed in 2020.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Minister and his Department are aware of the concerns that have been raised by Prof Malone, Master of the Rotunda Hospital. The Minister met with Prof Malone and other representatives from the Rotunda Hospital, the RCSI Hospital Group, as well as the HSE in July 2019 to discuss potential interim works at the hospital.

The Minister asked that further consideration be given to the scope of the works necessary to address the infrastructural challenges, having regard to the plan to relocate the Rotunda to the Connolly Hospital campus. It was agreed that further engagement on a proposal was required across the HSE, and with the Rotunda. A revised and evaluated proposal is awaited from the HSE.

While the Minister recognises that some infrastructural development will be necessary at the Rotunda Hospital in the interim period, as Deputies will be aware, in line with Government policy to co-locate maternity services with acute adult services, the Rotunda Hospital will be relocated to Connolly Hospital. Co-location is considered international best practice and will best facilitate the provision of an appropriate environment within all our maternity hospitals and units.

Project Ireland 2040 provides €10.9 billion for health capital developments across the country. The relocation of the Rotunda Hospital to the Connolly campus is one of the key infrastructure projects which will be funded under Project Ireland 2040. In addition, the recently published HSE Capital Plan 2019 provides that the project brief for the redevelopment of the Rotunda will be progressed.

In a letter from mid-May 2019 relating to the infrastructural challenges at the Rotunda Hospital, Prof. Malone notified the Minister of an infectious outbreak involving ESBL-producing Klebsiella (a type of bacteria that is resistant to many antibiotics) and the risk to infants at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Upon being notified of this outbreak, the Department of Health’s immediate priority was for the welfare of the infants affected by the outbreak and the safe care of all infants at the Rotunda NICU. Consequently, the Department immediately sought assurances from the Hospital that safe and appropriate care was being provided to infants cared for at the NICU. In addition, the Department sought information regarding the immediate and medium-term actions being taken by the Hospital and Hospital Group to address the outbreak.

The hospital assured the Department that international best practice for managing infectious outbreaks has been followed by the hospital. The hospital also stated that an extensive action plan including both clinical and operational measures has been implemented to address the outbreak situation.

Antimicrobial resistance and the prevention and control of healthcare associated infections continue to be a significant priority for the Government of Ireland. Indeed, significant progress has already been made in implementing Ireland's National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance 2017-2020 (known as iNAP) and this work continues.