BEACON hospital, a new facility in south Dublin, has offered to pay for a €400m national children’s hospital on a public-private partnership basis. The Beacon Medical Group says it could build a “superhospital” in under three years on a site adjacent to its existing €180m development in Sandyford.

Michael Cullen, one of three investors behind the group, said: “We think that we could build, complete and deliver a national children’s hospital that would be second to none. It could be built in a cost-efficient manner, cheaper than anybody else, and within a 2½ to three-year time frame.”

Last week a consultants’ report recommended that the three children’s hospitals in Dublin — at Temple Street, Crumlin and Tallaght — be merged into one.

Ireland’s limited experience of public-private partnership has been controversial, with the National Toll Roads arrangement on the M50 being the most notorious. There was another setback for public- private partnership arrangements when Jarvis Construction, a British company, got into financial difficulties while it was in negotiations to build the Cork School of Music.

Eoin Smith, a leading oncologist at Crumlin children’s hospital, said: “The days of building a private hospital for children are over. I wouldn’t know anything about the Beacon, but I don’t think this would be a runner. Even if there was a site there and somebody was about to build it, history wouldn’t be kind to Mary Harney if she did something like that.

“Tertiary paediatrics is all about research and development and you have to have it beside a hospital with a link to a university. For the sake of being cost-effective it should be sited near or on the campus of one of our major teaching hospitals. In my opinion, the one that would be good is St James’s hospital.”

Cullen said that the Beacon Medical Group is prepared to build the new hospital on a nine-acre site on the Luas line and accessible nationally from the M50. He said that a public-private partnership scheme could be used to finance the development.

“As long as it makes commercial sense, we would be interested in doing a PPP or a sale and leaseback agreement. We’d be happy to do a fixed price contract and would ensure that the state got value for money,” he said.

Last week the HSE published a study of international best practice in tertiary (specialised) and secondary (general) hospital-based paediatric services. The study, carried out by McKinsey, the consultants, concluded that one national children’s hospital should be based in Dublin. It should have 380 beds and be adjacent to an adult hospital. The study recommended that the site should have space for future expansion and be easily accessible.

Cullen said that his group could facilitate all of the requirements laid out in the report.

“We have land adjacent to the M50 where we could build a 350-bed hospital or whatever was required,” he said.

“Based on what we have learnt in building the current Beacon hospital, we think that we could do a good job and it’s certainly accessible in terms of the road network and the Luas.

“We have the land available to us and we could build on it quite soon. We’ve shown that we can build and open a hospital here within the time frame and we could do the same with the children’s hospital. We think the real cost of building a hospital is approximately €1m per bed.”

It is understood that three greenfield sites are under consideration by the Department of Health, two of which are in the constituency of Harney, the health minister.

Times Recommends

• 'Radio Rancid' is scourge of Obama
• French gulp as global warming alters wines
• Colton, the barefoot boy bandit, outfoxes sheriffs