Dr. Henry Marsh, Dr. Philip Crampton and Dr. Charles Johnson founded the National Children’s Hospital as a hospital for sick children in 1821, as the first teaching hospital in Ireland and Britain, with the following objectives:
- To afford medical and surgical aid to sick children.
- To give students the opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of infantile diseases which clinical instruction alone can impart and.
- To extend information to mothers and nurses as regards the proper management of children, both in health and disease.
Many distinguished physicians and surgeons worked in the NCH including William Stokes, Richard Evanson, Henry Maunsell and Fleetwood Churchill.
Paediatric medicine has continued to be advanced at the NCH including the provision of a comprehensive paediatric radiology service and a children’s Accident and Emergency service.
By assuming the paediatric services formerly provided by St Ultan’s Hospital, in 1982 and the Adelaide Hospital, Dublin 1987, the NCH has continued to evolve to provide a quality service to children and their families. Up to 50,000 children are treated each year at the NCH and there is an extensive research programme into children’s health and illnesses.
Today the National Children’s Hospital is part of the Adelaide & Meath Hospital, in Tallaght comprising a total of 589 beds. It services a catchment population of under 16-year-olds, covering much of the Counties of Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare.
The National Children’s Hospital facilities include:
- Clinical Areas:
- Children’s Accident & Emergency Department.
- Children’s Out-Patient Department.
- Oak Ward.
- Children’s High Dependency Unit.
- Maple Ward.
- Beech Ward.
- Beech Day Ward.
- Children’s X-ray Department.
- Children’s Operating Theatre.
- Parent Accommodation.
- Play Room & School facilities.
