The National Children's Hospital is not set to be open to patients until 2030 at the earliest, a former leading consultant has said.
The State has been battling with developers from BAM over 2,000 claims worth more than €700million and it is believed that the they have now repeatedly pushed back the completion until May 2024, and have asked for the delay to be pushed back again.
Dr Roisin Healy, a retired children's consultant who previously pushed for the National Children's Hospital, told
The Irish Sun that the likelihood of patients being treated there before 2030 is unlikely.
She said: "This hospital won't be up and running until at least 2030.
"We've always said that the cost of the St James's site would run hundreds of millions of euros over budget and, sadly, now all of our predictions are coming true.
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Credit: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie[/caption]
"I'm really sad and upset by all this. If Connolly had been chosen as the site, then this hospital would have been treating children years ago."
Earlier this summer, according to documents seen by
RTÉ News, it was reported that almost half of the operating theatres in the new children's hospital could need remedial work.
Contractors at the hospital site were ordered to stop work on the ceilings of 11 operating theatres last month and the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has said that they are yet to know if design changes or further work will be needed.
RTÉ has now confirmed that a review is underway and reflects the ongoing changes of design but said it is standard due to the scale of the National Children's Hospital.
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