Second naming process for children’s hospital yet to start

Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) is not the permanent name for the new children’s hospital and a process to decide upon a name has yet to begin, following the scrapping in 2018 of the title ‘Phoenix Children’s Hospital’.  

A CHI Ireland spokesperson told the Medical Independent: “The legal name of the organisation established to oversee the complex work of integration and transition to the new facilities and to run the hospital and outpatient and urgent care centres, when built, is Children’s Health Ireland, as referred to in the Children’s Health Act 2018 and this legal name is currently in use.”

A previous process to find a name for the new hospital, which involved staff consultation and over 300 suggestions, concluded with an announcement that ‘Phoenix Children’s Hospital’ had been chosen.

However, following concerns expressed about the name and a threat of legal action from a similarly named hospital in the US, it was dropped by Minister for Health Simon Harris.

Currently, the title CHI is used extensively in relation to the future hospital and two outpatient and urgent care paediatric centres at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown and Tallaght University Hospital. The centre at Connolly opened with restricted hours last month, with the facility at Tallaght due to open next year.  The new children’s hospital at the St James’s Hospital campus is scheduled to open in 2023.

“A new consultative approach to agreeing a brand/image ‘operational name’ for the new entity will be undertaken by CHI in due course building on the earlier naming process,” said CHI’s spokesperson.

This process is expected to give consideration to names already suggested by staff, young people and parents and those put forward by individuals and groups in the previous consultation.