New Belfast maternity clinic may just face an extra 28-month extend

The opening of Belfast’s new maternity clinic might be behind schedule through every other 28 months.

Mike Nesbitt instructed the meeting he may just now not “soften the news” and has requested for an exterior skilled to check if the verdict taken is the most productive one and if portions of the clinic might be opened within the intervening time.

The minister additionally stated that he’s “far from finished” at the subject and he must also higher perceive why some mavens have disagreed with the choice taken through the well being agree with.

During final Thursday’s well being committee, it emerged that the well being agree with confronted 3 choices to take a look at and fasten the water gadget.

These incorporated:

• Ongoing checking out of person water faucets around the development
• Installing a “discreet checking system” for high-risk spaces together with the neonatal unit
• Pulling out all of the water gadget, which used to be described through control as “excessive”

The new maternity clinic, which is based totally within the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, is already 10 years at the back of agenda and has price £97m thus far.

At provide control has selected the second one possibility which they stated used to be the “safest” solution to continue as susceptible young children can be secure.

The agree with took ownership of the five-storey development in March 2024 and started a “clinical commissioning phase” – a technique of making sure a secure transition of provider to the brand new website.

Just a couple of months later in July, the agree with stated that all the way through checking out of water retailers, excessive ranges of Pseudomonas aeruginosa had been found out within the water gadget.

Pseudomonas an infection killed 3 young children at Belfast’s Royal Jubilee Hospital in 2012.

The an infection does now not normally impact wholesome other folks however babies and other folks with weakened immune programs are susceptible.

Marie-Louise Connolly, BBC News NI Health Correspondent

This newest construction on when Belfast’s new maternity clinic will open is solely improbable.

While the protection of young children and moms is paramount, it kind of feels that taking a choice about what must occur subsequent has once more been allowed to waft.

Yet every other skilled is being referred to as into evaluation and advise on how the agree with’s control staff plans to get to the bottom of the disaster.

And the entire whilst time is ticking with pregnant ladies, new young children and body of workers anticipated to paintings in lower than highest prerequisites.

Alliance Party Health spokesperson Danny Donnelly MLA has condemned the extend, calling it “utterly unacceptable”.

“It creates real and serious concerns about project management and accountability within the Health Department,” he added.

SDLP Opposition Health Spokesperson Colin McGrath referred to as the announcement a “bitter blow”.

“These delays are failures that impact mothers, babies, and families,” the South Down MLA stated.

• 1999: It is proposed maternity products and services must be positioned in a brand new clinic at the Royal Hospital website
• 2005: Plans emerge for a brand new blended Women’s and Children’s Hospital however the concept is shelved as a result of capital investment constraints
• 2010: Then well being minister Michael McGimpsey initiates a evaluation that proposes to position the maternity unit at the best 3 flooring of the Critical Care development at the Royal Victoria Hospital website
• 2015: The £57m maternity clinic’s anticipated crowning glory date as first put ahead through McGimpsey in 2010
• 2017: Work at the new maternity development, the primary segment of the full mission, starts with an estimated crowning glory date of 2020
• 2019: An Audit Office record main points the clinic is six years late and is £17m over funds. Estimated prices upward thrust to £74m
• 2020: The Covid-19 pandemic affects development. Phase some of the mission were because of be entire in August 2020
• 2021: Phase two – the demolition of the prevailing neonatal wing – anticipated to be finished in March whilst the 3rd segment, the development of a bridge hyperlink to the Critical Care Centre, had a September crowning glory date
• 2022: The division informs the Audit Office that the funds has higher to £97.1m
• 2023: The Audit Office data general spend had reached £89.5m
• 2024: The Belfast Trust says additional important delays are most probably due to the to the excessive presence of the pseudomonas micro organism within the water gadget
• 2024: The well being minister Mike Nesbitt confirms a subject with clinical gasoline pipework at Belfast’s long-delayed new maternity clinic has emerged
• 2025: The opening might be behind schedule through but every other 28 months, Nesbitt tells MLAs