SOME €4,500 was spent coming up with the name for the new €2 billion children’s hospital which has been officially named . . . The National Children’s Hospital Ireland.
A specialist branding agency was drafted in to help name the new facility.
And Health Minister Jennifer Carroll McNeill today defending the name as she said it would make it easier for stressed out parents coming to Dublin.
A “branding and naming process” was set up to come up with recommendations for the name of the long delayed hospital which is set to cost the State more than €2 billion.
This process included the recruitment of a “specialist branding agency” with a shortlist of 17 names drawn up.
Three main principles guided this naming process, including engagement, mindfulness of history and lessons learned, and time and cost effectiveness.
A series of focus groups were set up through CHI with a Youth Advisory Council and a Family Advisory Network.
The Department of Health told the Irish Sun that the entire process cost €4,500.
Ultimately, the Minister for Health has decided to call the hospital the National Children’s Hospital Ireland – which was among the names on the recommended list.
The Minister today defended the name as she claimed it would make it easier for stressed parents to find in Dublin.
She said: “The name of the children’s hospital which I’m going to publish later today which is of course The National Children’s Hospital Ireland which I see have been described in different ways.
“The reason why we picked that name is very simple. We had a process of engagement with the youth advisory groups, with parents, with patients and that is the name they chose.
“I think it is a good name. Albeit, I think people are going to call it very simply the Children’s Hospital but what I’m really most concerned about is a stressed out parent coming into Heuston Station and getting in a taxi and maybe that parent doesn’t speak English as their first language, maybe they just need to get to the Children’s Hospital so I think just the simplest possible name.
“But I really thought it was important to reflect on the different conversation that has been had around Kathleen Lynn and what an extraordinary woman, what an extraordinary medic and extraordinary patriot Kathleen Lynn was.
“I was in the Royal Eye and Ear Hospital two weeks ago and we were opening the Kathleen Lynn cataract surgery and there was a brilliant presentation on her.
‘FANTASTIC WOMAN’
“She was a ferocious very brave very fantastic woman and I’d love to see her commemorated in different ways.
“So I’m going to speak to the youth advisory committee in the National Children’s Hospital Ireland to see what they think.
“I would like to name something in the hospital after her.
“Whether it’s a wing or maybe an education auditorium so that generations of students perhaps can see her name and reflect on her name and know who she is.
“So I would like to find a way to acknowledge and commemorate her extraordinary work but in respect of the overall name of the hospital I just had to go with A – what was chosen by the young people themselves and B what I thought would be just the simplest thing for a stressed out parent to come up with.”
