Press release
Minister Donnelly receives Cabinet approval for the new National Maternity Hospital project to go to tender
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has today welcomed the Cabinet’s approval to go to tender for the construction of the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) at St Vincent’s University Hospital (SVUH) at Elm Park. Cabinet today approved the business cases for the relocation of the NMH which enables the Health Service Executive (HSE) to deploy its tender strategy to find a bidder to construct the new 244-bed maternity hospital.
Welcoming the announcement, Minister Donnelly said:
“I welcome the approval of Cabinet today for this important milestone towards the delivery of the new National Maternity Hospital.
“The new National Maternity Hospital will be the biggest and most important investment in women’s healthcare in Ireland in decades. The quality of care delivered at the existing NMH at Holles Street is of the highest standard but is currently limited by infrastructural constraints. The new NMH is designed to be aligned with leading international standards which will result in improved patient and family experiences. Co-location of the NMH with St Vincent’s at Elm Park will enable greater and more direct access to a wide range of critical care and specialist medical services, reducing risk for both the mother and the newborn baby.”
The HSE is ready to go to tender on this project in the coming weeks. Once a successful bidder has been identified the Minister for Health will return to Cabinet to seek approval for the signing of contracts and to enable the project to proceed to the main construction phase.
Minister Donnelly also noted:
“This will not just be a replacement of the existing National Maternity Hospital but will offer almost 50% more in-patient and day case beds and provide additional capacity to manage national unmet need for women’s health services. The contemporary design of the new NMH provides flexibility to allow for the delivery of clinical services and to adapt to both expected and unforeseen change into the future.”
The project will proceed to the tendering stage for the main works in line with EU and national requirements.
The procurement process will run in parallel to further enabling works on the SVUH campus. The enabling works will clear the site by decanting existing SVUH buildings to further de-risk the main works.
The Procurement Process will be approximately 18- 21 months, to ensure sufficient time for the market to respond with the scale and complexity of the works, and sufficient time for tender appraisal to ensure the 'Most Economically Advantageous Tender' is selected.
The proposed new NMH building will be located at the eastern side of the St Vincent’s University Hospital campus at Elm Park. It will comprise a 7-story building with a gross internal floor area of up to approximately 54,000m2.
It will include 244 beds, an increase of 80 in-patient and day case beds from the existing number at Holles Street, 5 Theatres, 24 Birthing Rooms, early pregnancy foetal assessment and ultrasound facilities, and spaces to aid in near-patient education and professional development for healthcare professionals.
The provision of single in-patient rooms on the campus supports patient privacy and dignity and reduces the spread of infection.
The new NMH will also provide facilities to support a range of maternity, gynaecological and neonatal services such as enabling gynaecology service reforms recently developed at the Holles Street site to be deployed to their full capacity, including: ambulatory gynaecology, specialist menopause clinic, regional fertility hub, endometriosis hub, and a national mesh complications service.
The hospital has been designed to support the delivery of a range of shared services between the NMH and SVUH hospitals, such as the laboratories, sterile services, and patient and staff catering, which will bring operational efficiencies.
The possibility of a flexible use of space means that the new NMH on the SVUH campus at Elm Park will deliver a longevity of design that could never have been achieved in the existing building at Holles Street, thereby future-proofing the new building.
It is well recognised that for optimal clinical outcomes, maternity services should be co-located with adult acute services.
An important objective of co-locating maternity services with adult acute services is to implement a modern campus approach to healthcare, where a range of medical specialists operate in close proximity to improve patient care and patient outcomes.
These adjacencies and linkage requirements are fully incorporated into the design of the new NMH. For example, the design locates NMH theatres adjacent to the Level 3 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at SVUH, which will mean quicker access to emergency care from clinicians to the acute adult hospital.