LAST UPDATE | 3 Sep 2020

THE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL in Tallaght in Dublin reopens this morning, Children’s Health Ireland has said, but it will not offer full acute services. 

The hospital will redirect critically ill and critically injured children to the Emergency Departments at Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals. 

Acute services for children were temporarily relocated from Tallaght to Crumlin and Temple Street due to Covid-19 in March to support Tallaght University Hospital’s adult services in dealing with a surge in Covid-19 cases.

The re-opening of acute services in Tallaght has accelerated some service changes as the hospital moves towards opening a new outpatient and urgent care centre as part of the new National Children’s Hospital in 2021, Children’s Health Ireland said.

The hospital will now have a 24/7 Emergency Care Unit – rather than a Paediatric Emergency Department. 

Tallaght will provide paediatric medical inpatient, day case surgery, medicine, x-ray and outpatient services.

In a statement, CHI said: “We wish to reassure families that CHI is a safe environment to bring your child to as we respond to the challenges of Covid-19 and we continue to adhere to public health guidance on infection prevention and control and social distancing.”

Criticism

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has this morning criticised what it has called the “sudden and unplanned” downgrade of paediatric services at Tallaght. 

The INMO said its members have contacted the union to express their frustration at the situation, citing professional concerns for patients. 

Further meetings with CHI management and the INMO are planned over the next number of weeks on regarding the decision, the union said. 

“This is a sudden and unplanned change,” Joe Hoolan, INMO industrial relations officer for CHI Tallaght, said. 

“Despite the hospital’s statement implying that this was planned, it has come as a major shock to the frontline,” Hoolan said. 

INMO industrial relations officer for both CHI Crumlin and CHI Temple Street Mary Rose Carroll added: “Our members have been caught unaware with this change. They have not been given extra resources but are expected to cope with thousands of extra acute patients.”

With reporting by Hayley Halpin