New hospital site to be known by Christmas

The site of the new regional hospital for the north-east, which is to be built in Navan, should be known in a matter of weeks when a report from an independent consultant is due to recommend the optimum location for the project. After Navan members of the Dublin-North East Regional Health Forum pressed HSE chief executive, Professor Brendan Drumm on the issue in Kells on Monday, the town"s area manager, Eugene Cummins, confirmed yesterday (Tuesday) that the report was expected next month. The regional hospital site is one of three key elements in the new Navan Development Plan, currently in the early stages of drafting by the town council. Plans relating to the proposed rail line linking Navan with Dublin and the M3 motorway project are the others predominant elements. An independent consultant had been engaged by Meath County Council to look at sites in the Navan area and consider them from such viewpoints as access to rail and motorway and also infrastructural provision. Different 'weightings" are expected for various sites based on all criteria. Mr Cummins stressed that the local authority had not itself proposed any sites but had asked the consultant to locate them. Navan area Forum members, Councillors Tommy Reilly and Joe Reilly, both sought updating from Professor Drumm on the plans for the new regional hospital when he attended a HSE Forum meeting in Kells on Monday. The HSE chief executive drew attention to the 'significant cuts' in the capital programme which the Government had to make due to the economic challenges it faced. However, a public-private partnership (PPPs) approach was one which could be taken , he said. He stressed that, in line with the 'Transformation" agenda, a comprehensive primary care structure must be in place in the north-east ahead of the regional hospital. Speculation about the possible sites for the new 'super hospital" for the region has tended to focus on three specific locations. One is on land at the Borallion, Trim Road; a second on property between the Slane Road and Proudstown Road and a third on land owned by Tara Mines in the Nevinstown area, near Windtown. In advance of any recommendation on these or other sites from the council"s consultant, differences have been voiced on the value of the PPP approach. Cllr Tommy Reilly said he was not surprised that Professor Drumm had suggested that the hospital might be built by this means. Cllr Reilly said his main priority was to get the regional hospital built and operating with all available speed. He said the adoption of Canadian/Australian models with construction not just of a hospital, but a medical campus with full training facilities would be ideal. The hospital could be established on a charitable trust basis and funds available from European and international sources drawn upon if the site had a training element. However, Cllr Joe Reilly, while supporting construction of the regional hospital in Navan, said he believed the use of PPPs by the State to fund public projects had proven 'wasteful and inefficient'. Cllr Reilly said it was also 'an unreliable source of funding' as the private sector could and had pulled out of public infrastructural project commitments. For example, in Dublin during the summer, McNamara Developers had withdrawn from a number of regeneration projects due throughout the capital city as the housing market began to significantly contract, he pointed out. Another Navan area councillor, Jim Holloway (who is not a HSE Forum member) voiced serious concern that Professor Drumm had 'cast severe doubt on building a regional hospital in Navan in the present economic climate'. Cllr Holloway said 'we must identify the site immediately and get on with the job'. However, he was concerned that Cllr Tommy Reilly had begun to talk of privatising the regional hospital as the only way of delivering the facility to Navan and the only way of running the facility. For Cllr Holloway, the project must not be 'ceded to private venture capitalists but should be delivered and run by the public service for the public service'. Meanwhile, Cllr Joe Reilly said his Sinn Fein party had called for the Government to empower the Comptroller and Auditor General to examine all existing PPP projects for cost overruns, revenue foregone and wastage against long-term cost and profit projections. He stressed that the north-east"s new regional hospital was 'an opportunity for job creation as well as the delivery of a vital public service to the region'. In a further comment, Cllr Holloway voiced concern that, in a radio interview with Professor Drumm and Cllr Reilly, there had been no mention of any investment in Our Lady"s Hospital to enable it to retain a service until the regional hospital was delivered.