A MAJOR CHILDREN’S hospital has issued an urgent call for funds for a renovation, saying the facilities used to treat sick children are obsolete and “not fit for purpose”.
Staff at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, south Dublin said the institution lacks modern amenities and children are treated in cramped wards with out-of-date facilities.
The campaign comes amid debate on the future of the National Children’s Hospital project – but campaigners said children cannot afford to wait years for a new hospital.
“Children are sick, right now, said Dr Orla Franklin, a consultant paediatric cardiologist at Crumlin. “Their illnesses ignore time and circumstances.” She added:
Every year Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital treats 130,000 children. We carry out 550 open-heart surgeries. Children are fighting aggressive cancers. These tough life struggles are happening in cramped and out of date facilities. This has to change.
The hospital is launching a new campaign to raise €8million for refurbishment of its cardiac and cancer care facilities.
Currently the cancer ward has no private rooms for terminally ill children, and no private bathroom for patients or their family to use, the hospital said in a statement. Meanwhile, parents of critically ill heart patients are forced to sleep on corridors and wards.
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