'Welcome news about new hospital - but it comes late and well over-budget' says DUP MLA Diane Dodds

Party health spokeswoman Diane Dodds made the comments as the Northern Ireland Executive revealed that progress on the new facility, to be located on the campus of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, could begin within days.

However, the project is late and vastly over its initial projected budget – something Mrs Dodds blames the Belfast Health Trust for.

SDLP health spokesman Colin McGrath also voiced support for the project, but lamented that "Executive ministers [are] looking a pat on the back for doing the bare minimum," adding that is "galling for the public who are picking up the bill for these delays".

The new hospital was announced in 2013 under the tenure of then-health minister Edwin Poots. It was originally planned to open in July 2020 at a cost of £223 million.

Today's announcement says that work is due to take five years, with the hospital opening "at the beginning of the next decade", with the overall cost now being £671 million.

It is not the only stalled and over-budget NHS project; there have also been plans to open a new maternity unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital site too.

It was meant to be opened by 2015 and was originally budgeted at £57 million.

Costs for the maternity hospital have since been revised upward to about £97 million and, although it is essentially complete now, it is unclear when exactly when the unit will open after dangerous bacteria was found in the water supply last year.

The new children’s hospital will have 10 floors, 155 beds, 10 theatres, and an emergency department capable of catering for up to 45,000 children per year.

Some 80% of the beds will be in single rooms with private ensuite facilities, and each ward will benefit from social and play spaces, with parent facilities and separate staff areas.

The announcement that it has been given “the formal go-ahead, with work scheduled to begin in a matter of days” was made in a press release from The Executive Office on Wednesday moning, which described the children’s hospital as “an Executive flagship project”.

Diane Dodds said she “warmly welcomes” the news that work will “finally” begin.

“However, while today is a good day, it must also be a day for reflection,” she added.

"This project was first announced in 2013 with an estimated cost of £250 million. Now, 12 years later, that figure has skyrocketed to over £600 million, with projections suggesting it could be even more.

"This is a stark example of the failures within the trust to deliver major projects in a timely and cost-effective manner.

"The consequences of these failures are felt by the public, with taxpayers’ money that could have been used elsewhere now swallowed up by spiralling costs.”

Colin McGrath meanwhile said: “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.

“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.”

On the question of the cost and the delays, the Department of Health said: “Factors behind the delay and increase in costs include design changes reflecting changes in guidance and legislation.

"The primary reason for the increase in costs is inflation. The significant impact of rising inflation on building costs in recent years has been well documented.

“In light of the budget constraints the Department of Health continues to face, and the significant increase in the total cost of this project, the department had to undertake appropriate due diligence to assess the affordability and value for money of this investment decision.”

The contractor which has been appointed to work on the children’s hospital project is the Graham-BAM Healthcare Partnership.

The Graham-BAM Healthcare Partnership had previously worked on the maternity hospital.