Below is  the Submission to An Bord Pleanála from the Department of Paediatric Intensive Care, September 2015  , signed by fifteen medical consultants.

Re: Co-location of a maternity hospital with the new children’s hospital  [PA0043]

To the Secretary,

We, whose daily practice involves caring for critically ill neonates, unreservedly support the need for a single, national children’s hospital, and are willing to compromise on many fronts to achieve this goal, acknowledging that no site is ideal.

Co-location with a physically linked maternity hospital is, in our expert opinion, non-negotiable. We are unwilling to endorse a national children’s hospital on a site that cannot accommodate this truly critical adjacency. To do so would be to fail those infants whom we are entrusted to protect. To proceed with such a project will result in the avoidable death or disability of many new-born babies for years to come.

It is our earnest wish that the proposal for the St. James’s site can deliver such a co-location. If, however, this is not the case, we urge the Board to have the courage and integrity to act accordingly.

Yours sincerely,

The Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin –Prof Mark Redmond, Mr Lars Nolke , Mr Jonathon McGuinness

Department of Cardiology, Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin–Dr Colin McMahon,  Dr Orla Franklin,  Dr Paul Oslizlok, Dr Kevin Walsh, Dr Damien Kenny, Dr Terry Prendiville

,The Joint Department of Paediatric Intensive Care Medicine, Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin and The Children’s University Hospital, Temple Street–Dr Martina Healy,   Dr Kevin Carson,   Dr Cathy McMahon,   Dr Dermot Doherty, Dr Suzanne Crowe,  Dr Cormac Breatnach