THE NORTHERN IRELAND Executive has announced that works are finally due to start on a new children’s hospital in Belfast — five years after the hospital was initially supposed to open.

The new facility, which is being developed on the Royal Victoria Hospital site in Belfast, was originally proposed in 2013 and was expected to be finished by 2020 at a cost of £223 million.

However, the Stormont Executive confirmed today that developing the hospital will cost £671 million overall, including construction works valued at £389 million.

It also expects the construction, which is due to start in the coming days, to take five years. 

Before proceeding with the hospital project, its value for money was “carefully reviewed” by Northern Ireland’s current Minister for Health, Mike Nesbitt of the Ulster Unionist Party, a press statement said.

Not proceeding with the hospital was “a carefully considered option” – but the future benefits for sick children and their families were a deciding factor in choosing to go forward with building the hospital.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill said the anticipated start of construction is “very welcome and long-awaited news for families across the north”.

“Once completed, the new hospital will provide our children and young people with access to the very best medical treatment as well as improving their overall experience of hospital care,” she said. 

However, the SDLP’s health spokesperson in Stormont, Colin McGrath, accused Executive ministers of “looking for a pat on the back for doing the bare minimum”.

“This project should have been completed in 2020 and instead the hospital will now open in 2030 at the earliest. That’s generations of young people in the North who will not receive the highest standard of care possible due to political failure in delivering this hospital and Executive inability to deal with the challenges facing our health service,” McGrath said.

“Of course progress on the hospital at long last is welcome and we want to see it delivered as soon as possible, but again we see Executive ministers looking a pat on the back for doing the bare minimum – that’s galling for the public who are picking up the bill for these delays,” he said.

In Dublin, the new national children’s hospital in development next to St. James’s Hospital has also faced lengthy delays and rising costs. The Journal reported this week that the hospital may not fully open until 2026.