The Rotunda and Coombe women’s hospital are to be moved as part of a re-organisation of maternity services in Dublin, the Government has announced.
The Rotunda, the oldest maternity hospital in the world, is to be moved to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, in the constituency of Minister for Health Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Joan Burton.
Both Ministers were present for the announcement at Government Buildings after today’s Cabinet meeting.
The Coombe Hospital is to transfer within the south-east inner city to a site adjacent to the planned new national children’s hospital at St James’s Hospital.
The planning application for that development, which will also make reference to the future building of a maternity hospital, will be lodged next month.
The proposed moves of the Rotunda and Coombe are unlikely to happen until 2020 at the earliest and funding required - at least €300 million - has yet to be sourced, the ministers admitted.
The third Dublin maternity hospital, the National Maternity Hospital at Holles St, is supposed to move to a site on the campus of St Vincent’s Hospital, but this move is currently on hold because of a row between St Vincent’s and the Health Service Executive.
Mr Varadkar said he had written to St Vincent’s urging the hospital not to let rivalry get in the way of a major infrastructural project.
The re-organisation means in future all three Dublin maternity hospitals will be located alongside major adult teaching hospitals, which is seen as best practice internationally.
Plans to revamp maternity services have been in train for over a decade, as the buildings in which the three hospital are located are old and overcrowded and seen as no longer fit for purpose.
The Rotunda was originally slated for a move to the nearby Mater Hospital but this plan went awry when planning permission for a children’s hospital on the Mater site was refused.
The Coombe was originally supposed to move to Tallaght Hospital.
Mr Varadkar said he was initially concerned the move of the Rotunda to his constituency could be interpreted as “stroke politics”.
However, the proposal from the Rotunda itself and he didn’t think there were many votes in planned projects as opposed to completed buildings.
