Minister for Health Mary Harney today defended the planned new national children’s hospital insisting it would be a state-of-the-art facility.
The sod is due to be turned on the new hospital at the controversially-located Mater Hospital site by the end of the year with construction due to begin in 2011.
Ms Harney told a Dublin conference the hospital would place “a very strong emphasis on the voice of children and the engagement of children”.
Alluding to criticisms of the project from within the medical profession, Ms Harney admitted there were challenges ahead.
“All of us become creatures of habit. When we’re challenged to do something in a different way … as individuals we often know it’s right, but we find it hard to respond,” she said. “A very important part of the new paediatric children’s hospital is not just the building. The building is the enabler, it is the facility, it will be state-of-the-art.
