Galway lecturer appointed to hospital review group

An NUI Galway lecturer has been appointed to the review group set up to consider the decision of An Bord Pleanála to refuse planning permission for the National Paediatric Hospital.

Professor Brendan Gerard Loftus, Dean of the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at NUI Galway, was appointed to the nine-person group on Friday.

The review group, which will be chaired by former HSE Chairman Dr Frank Dolphin, has been tasked with considering the different options that now exist for progressing the construction of a national children’s hospital and advising Minister for Health Dr James Reilly on the issue.

Prof Loftus is a consultant paediatrician and previously worked as a professor of paediatrics at NUI Galway. He has been appointed to a number of public bodies and organisations and is currently Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Paediatrics of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.