NCHA has learned with concern of the precipitous appointment of Dr. Frank Dolphin to chair the Review Committee, announced yesterday by the Minister for Health within hours of An Bord Pleanala’s decision. Prior to his appointment by Minister Harney as Chair of the Board of the HSE in August 2010, Dr Dolphin was Chairman of the Children’s University Hospital ,Temple St. and a member of the Board of Governers of the Mater Misericordia Hospital. He resigned from both of these positions on his appointment to the HSE.
Given the legacy of mistrust generated over the past five years it is essential that not even a perception of possible bias is allowable in this appointment particularly as the Minister has not outruled the possibility of the children’s hospital being built at the Mater.
NCHA believes that it is in the interests of the children of Ireland that Dr. Dolphin graciously decline the post. We further believe that the Department of Children should partner the Department of Health in all future deliberations regarding the urgent development of the National Paediatric Hospital.