Mother and Children’s Flagship project

This major healthcare infrastructure project will see the creation of a new regional children’s hospital for Northern Ireland and a new Maternity Hospital, both on the Royal Victoria Hospital Site.

Regional Children’s Hospital

Currently, paediatric services for Northern Ireland are distributed over multiple sites across our province and are insufficient for the increasing demand the Executive predicts for the region. 

The new Regional Children’s Hospital will bring together regional paediatric facilities for Northern Ireland in a state of the art healthcare facility. The new facility will replace the existing Belfast Hospital for Sick Children. 

The hospital is estimated at 55,000 square metres and when fully operational will provide:

• 155 inpatient beds
• 25 bed/bay Programmed Treatment Unit
• 10 operating theatres
• day procedure unit and one interventional MRI
• paediatric Emergency Department with a 10-bay Clinical Decision Unit
• ambulatory care facilities including outpatient, therapy & medical investigation unit
• link bridges between the Critical Care Building and new Maternity Hospital

The new hospital will dramatically increase the region’s capacity and capability in providing world-class healthcare facilities for sick children. 

The building’s design recognises a more holistic approach to healing with an increase in social and play spaces for patients and additional parent facilities included in the new design. 80% of bedrooms will also be single rooms with en suite facilities.

These changes recognise the importance of treating the whole person, the value of play and the role of the family in the healing process. The experience of sick children and their families will be greatly improved and in turn, this will lead to an improvement in health outcomes for everyone affected by serious childhood illness. 

Project progress

Work on the new Regional Children’s Hospital is scheduled to begin xxx and is due for completion in 2027

New Maternity Hospital

The new Maternity Hospital will provide modern facilities for enhanced maternity and obstetric services. The new £57m hospital will allow care for 6,000 plus births per year and will replace existing facilities (that currently continue to operate adjacent to the new building).

On completion, the new hospital will provide:

• 16 delivery rooms
• 68 beds in total
  • 10 midwife-led unit beds
  • 10 inpatient beds (for antenatal or high-risk deliveries) and
  • 48 beds located in the Critical Care Centre alongside the Maternity Outpatient Centre and Day Obstetric Unit 
• an admissions unit
• early pregnancy unit

The new facility will greatly increase the capacity and capability of the existing Belfast Trust Maternity service to provide high-quality perinatal care. 

The new facilities will support the creation of a new Midwife Led Unit, which will have private en-suite rooms, each with birthing pools. The new facilities will offer greater choice and an enhanced experience of childbirth and postpartum care for families in Northern Ireland’s capital.  Not sure to be honest – think we’ll need to fact check that with the department 

Project Progress

The completion of the main Hospital building (Phase B1) is projected for May 2022.Phase B2 and B3 will see the completion of a link bridge to the Critical Care Building and demolition of the existing Neonatal Building and is scheduled to complete in late 2023.