New Crumlin Hospital Group: Launch of the New Crumlin Hospital Group

Launch of the New Crumlin Hospital Group

Dublin, Ireland - March 17th, 2003 - A lobby group of parents of children who attend or who have attended Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children,Crumlin, Dublin was officially launched today (13th March 2003).

The New Crumlin Hospital Group has been formed by parents angry at the dilapidated facilties for Ireland’s most medically in need children.

The aim of the group is to see the existing out-dated hospital buildings rebuilt as a modern children’s hospital by the end of 2009, and to a standard comparable with those available in other parts of Europe.

Between them, the parents have decades of experience of Crumlin Children’s Hospital, where there has been only limited capital investment since it was first opened in 1957. In that period patient numbers have increased from 23,031 to 123,729, an increase of 537%.

Key life-saving clinical specialties such as cardiology, oncology, renal, intensive care and accident and emergency are housed in confined facilities that fall below internationally acceptable standards. Because of under investment, the hospital lacks key facilities such as an Observation Ward and an Isolation Ward. Meanwhile, part of the hospital’s laboratory is housed in the hospital’s original laundry and bone marrow harvest material is stored in a portacabin.

Also today, the New Crumlin Hospital Group launched its website www.newcrumlinhospital.org where parents and other friends can log on and find out more about the group and lend their support. The Group would especially welcome new members willing to meet TDs and other elected representatives to press for improvements at the hospital.

Chairman of the New Crumlin Hospital Group Karl Anderson said the hospital was now battling against its own outdated infrastructure and that as a result, many of the hospital’s doctors had told the Group they were unable to provide the health care service they would wish to or indeed, that Ireland’s most medically in need children deserved.

Two weeks ago, the Group published The Pollock Report which revealed that the hospital needed to be entirely rebuilt to achieve modern standards of health care medicine for acutely ill children. Following the report, Minister for Health and Children, Michael Martin TD told the Dail that the current state of the hospital building was “unacceptable.”

According to Mr Anderson: “It’s Ireland’s biggest and most specialised children’s hospital and it’s in a state of crisis because its excellent staff are faced with intolerable facilities.”

“The hard fact is that Crumlin Children’s Hospital consists of a series of aging buildings that, in many cases, are unable to provide the sort of health care that modern acute paediatric medicine demands. While that’s frustrating for us as parents, it is also frustrating for staff who deserve not just our gratitude, but also the dignity of proper facilities. Most importantly though, it’s a travesty of justice for children who, through no fault of their own, need the services of the hospital.

“There has been just one major injection of money in the last number of years but the hospital needs at least ten times that amount. The purpose of our work is to see that Crumlin gets the money it needs and that the development is not hindered by bureaucracy and administration.”

Anyone wishing to contact the New Crumlin Hospital Group can do so through the Internet by visiting www.newcrumlinhospital.org

For further information please contact:

Karl Anderson, Chairman of the New Crumlin Hospital Group on 087 2804-700.

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