IRELAND
Irish Independent
Maeve Sheehan
April 23 2017
Every time the health watchdog dispatches its inspectors to the National Maternity Hospital on Holles Street in Dublin, the conditions get worse. Inspectors have repeatedly warned of the dangers of packing ever increasing numbers of expectant mothers and infants into the dilapidated 19th century structure.
Most recently, they found the intensive care unit filled with 46 babies when it was designed to care for 36 and “poor hygiene” on the delivery ward. The building is no longer fit for purpose and the Master of the National Maternity Hospital, Dr Rhona Mahony, has pleaded with inspectors to “acknowledge the context of our challenges”.
The National Maternity Hospital has been fighting for a new home for two decades. So it was smiles all around at a press conference hosted by Health Minister Simon Harris last November to announce that a new National Maternity Hospital would be built on St Vincent’s Healthcare Group’s Elm Park campus.
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