The date for substantial completion of the new National Children's Hospital has already been moved by contractor BAM from March 2024 to May 2024, the Department of Health has said.
The change of handover date was notified before this week’s controversy about completion, which arose after documents leaked to Sinn Féin suggested changes were required to ceiling grilles and above-ceiling mechanical and electrical services in 11 operating theatres in the hospital.
Both the Taoiseach and the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board have rejected assertions from Sinn Féin that those modifications would add tens of millions of euro to the cost of the hospital and delay its completion.
However, separately, commenting on the timeline based on the programme of works with the main contractor, BAM, the Department of Health told Prime Time: "The main contractor’s last programme stated that substantial completion would be in March 2024. In a programme update it then suggested substantial completion could be achieved by the end of May 2024."
The Department added that the programme has now "expired". The effect of that is that no date for substantial completion is currently in place.
Once the contractor does achieve substantial completion, a further period of what the Department described as "operational commissioning of at least 6 months" would still be required.
Despite this changed timeline, the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar repeated that the Government anticipated "that the first patients will be seen there at some point in 2024."
The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has criticised BAM for not providing an updated programme of works. In a statement, the Board said the "critical issue of concern" for it was that BAM had still not provided "a compliant programme of works."
It said an updated programme was due in February but had still not been provided and that therefore BAM was in breach of contract. It added that, as a result, it intended to withhold 15% of the payments due to BAM.
For its part, in a statement, the contractor said that it was continuing to prepare the programme update "as required under the contract, based on the scope as currently known."
The documents leaked to Sinn Féin include analysis from a German air-conditioning consultancy firm, STS Consulting & Training, hired by Children’s Health Ireland, the hospitals group that includes Crumlin and Tallaght hospitals, and which is the client for the new children’s hospital. STS advised that the location of air diffusers may require modifications "to already installed ceilings and mechanical and electrical services" in 11 operating theatres.
By comparison, Dublin’s three existing children’s hospitals have 15 operating theatres between them, while the corridor for the new hospital’s operating theatres runs the equivalent length of the capital’s Grafton Street.
In extracts from a report last November leaked to Sinn Féin, STS Consulting wrote of the issues: "These are not snagging lists but rather, indicative of major generic faults, non-compliances and unresolved issues."
It said the longer they took to resolve, the more expensive and time-consuming the project would become, and it added that if "the present approach" was not corrected, "the systems will fail the final validation and will not be fit to be taken into use."
The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, however, said the problem is minor and should not affect the substantial completion date for construction.
It said a review is ongoing, but the status of that review is unclear. First, on 29 May, the contractors were instructed to stop works on the ceilings and services above them in the 11 operating theatres, and then last week, on 15 June, they were instructed to continue works according to the current design.
The board said that two tests were carried out and that the outcome of one had not been agreed between STS and the design team. It said that "in parallel", BAM was "instructed to review what would be the impact of moving the grilles in each of the 11 theatres". This was ongoing, the board said.
READ: Children's hospital board says 'minor works' needed in operating theatres
However, it added that "BAM has been instructed to continue works in accordance with the current design – and this potential issue will be addressed at the appropriate time".
The Taoiseach described the issues raised in the leak to Sinn Féin as "an unhelpful distraction aimed at shifting the focus from the contractor".
Meanwhile, the Department of Health said that €1.3 billion, or over 90%, of the Government-approved €1.433 billion contract budget has been drawn down to date. It said the final bill, including integration and transfer of services to the new sites, remains at an estimated total cost of €1.73 billion.
