Tallaght Children’s Hospital is being temporarily relocated
By Mary Dennehy
THE paediatric services at Tallaght are being temporarily closed and relocated to make available additional staff, emergency facilities and bed capacity for sick adults being cared for at Tallaght University Hospital.
As part of its contingency planning, Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) plans to temporarily relocate its acute paediatric services in CHI Tallaght to its other two children’s hospitals at Crumlin and Temple Street .
Tallaght Hospital
Services will also be relocated to the new paediatric outpatient and urgent care centre at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown.
This temporary move will result in the closure of acute paediatric services at Tallaght, including inpatients, day cases, out-patients and paediatric A&E, from midnight on Friday, March 27.
According to a spokesperson for CHI: “This decision has been taken to protect our patients, their families and our staff.
“In doing this, CHI is supporting Tallaght University Hospital with additional staff, emergency facilities and bed capacity for sick adults.
“Our decision is in line with other acute paediatric healthcare providers globally who have made similar decisions to support their acute adult hospital systems.”
CHI moved to reassure patients and families that its two other Dublin hospitals, CHI at Crumlin and CHI at Temple Street are open, including their 24 hour Emergency Departments for all emergencies.
The Urgent Care Centre at CHI at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown is also open for minor injuries or minor illnesses between 10am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.
“As part of our plan to move together to the new children’s hospital we have already commenced cross city ways of working so this temporary transition of services from CHI at Tallaght will be done in a safe, patient centred manner through close collaborative working across CHI”, the spokesperson said.
“We are ever grateful to the cooperation, commitment and dedicated efforts being undertaken by staff across CHI to temporarily consolidate services in the best interests of our patients, our staff and all our families.”
Dr Ciara Martin, Paediatric Emergency Medicine Consultant and Paediatric Executive Lead at CHI Tallaght said: “We are experiencing a national public health crisis, one we have never seen before.
“It is so important that all of us within the health service take whatever steps are possible to ensure that we direct resources where they are most in need – to support patients and our colleagues.
“We are all committed to providing the best possible clinical care to those who need it and we believe that by taking the steps today the health system as a whole will be strengthened.
“The measures announced for CHI at Tallaght are temporary but necessary.
“I want to thank our staff for their dedication, responsiveness and flexibility during these unprecedented times and also want to reassure parents and families that we continue to offer all necessary paediatric services at CHI at Crumlin, Temple Street and Tallaght and we will reopen paediatric services at Tallaght when we get through this pandemic.”
Message from CHI to families
If a child is seriously ill or you are worried that their life may be at risk, please attend Crumlin or Temple Street Emergency Departments and we will assess and treat your child as a priority.
If you are worried you or your child have symptoms of COVID-19 or flu please stay at home, do not attend our Emergency Departments or Urgent Care Centre, please contact your GP.
The advice you need is on HSE.ie
Any child who is 16 years of age or over should attend an adult ED service unless directed to a paediatric facility by a specialist team.
Further information is available at CHI Crumlin, CHI Temple Street and Children Health Ireland
