Julia Lewis
Transformation Director, Children’s Health Ireland
New technology and state-of-the-art design will help take paediatric care in Ireland to a new level as a children’s hospital prepares to open in Ireland.
Currently 90% complete with the first patients expected to be admitted in 2025, the new children’s hospital will centralise paediatric care in Dublin, bringing 39 specialities together in one centre. Leading the team charged with ensuring the move goes as smoothly as possible is Julia Lewis, Transformation Director for Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), which is a statutory body established in 2018 to oversee the development of specialist acute paediatric hospital services.
Hospitals collaborating to enhance children’s health
Established in 2019, CHI saw Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin; Temple Street Children’s University Hospital; and paediatric services at Tallaght University Hospitals integrate into one organisation to move to a new children’s hospital.
“We are combining the three existing hospitals and putting them into one state-of-the-art hospital,” says Lewis. “We expect this to be a world-class facility and a technologically advanced and digitally enhanced hospital — and the first truly electronic hospital in Ireland.” That sees the introduction of electronic healthcare records, allowing patients and families to interact with clinicians in real time.
Wards are designed in pods of eight to give
a ‘homely’ feel, and all in-patient rooms will
be single ensuites with a parent bed in each.
Technology and child-friendly design
Technology in the new hospital — which also includes new paediatric outpatient and urgent care centres — sees automated guidance vehicles delivering meals, medicines and linen to wards and departments.
Wards are designed in pods of eight to give a ‘homely’ feel, and all in-patient rooms will be single ensuites with a parent bed in each. Thirty parent beds have been added to the intensive care unit.
Artwork and images are based around nature and nurture to provide an environment to spark the imagination of the children and provide distractions from clinical procedures. “The importance of play in a paediatric hospital cannot be underestimated, so we also have a lot of play spaces in the building,” Lewis says.
Theatre capacity will increase with the hope of eradicating operating theatre waiting lists.
“We are also introducing surgical daycare and an observation unit attached to the emergency department,” Lewis adds. One of the aims of the patient and parent-friendly hospital is to keep stays for children short and avoid overnight admissions where possible.
Facilities for children and families
Co-located on the St James’s Hospital Campus, the site will include a paediatric academic health sciences centre, with universities providing a centre of excellence for training and education to provide healthcare professionals for the future workforce. Lewis says staff are enthusiastic about the new hospital and the switch to state-of-the-art technology. “That will be transformational and release more time to care and interact with children and families,” she says.