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Several national centres and institutions are already located on the St James’s Hospital campus, including the St Luke’s Radiation Oncology Network and the Wellcome Trust/HRB Clinical Research Facility. The advancement of clinical trials, new treatments and cutting edge research at St James’s Hospital will be bolstered by the creation of an AHSC, which will enable us to bring research from the laboratory bench to the bedside of the patient, providing excellence in clinical delivery and patient care. The Strategic Programme 2021 - 2025 provides a framework for achieving this mission, for the benefit of patients, the community and the knowledge economy.  

Over the past few years, the healthcare sector in Ireland has been faced with its biggest challenges to date, including a global pandemic and criminal cyber-attack, as well as an overnight transition for some colleagues to working from home and use of telehealth services. The extraordinary commitment of our staff has ensured a high standard of care is delivered to our patients, as well as progressing key strategic projects across the St James’s Hospital campus.

Among these key strategic projects is the Trinity St James’s Cancer Institute (TSJCI). In 2021, TSJCI received its Certificate of Accreditation and Designation from the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI), the first cancer centre in Ireland to do so. This marked an

important step in TSJCI’s ambition to become a designated comprehensive cancer centre, which will integrate medicine and science in cancer prevention, treatment and survivorship.

St James’s Hospital continues to face an array of exceptional challenges which it must urgently address. However, as the Strategic Programme 2021 - 2025 outlines, the Hospital also has an unprecedented opportunity to strategically reconstitute itself, with the backdrop of a changing health system, and environmental developments on both the hospital campus and our immediate geographical surroundings in Dublin 8.

Improving our campus means investing in infrastructure and in the environment of care for our patients and staff. The hospital recently concluded the largest ever retrofit of an Irish hospital in order to make our campus greener, and significantly reduce our carbon footprint and electrical consumption.

St James’s Hospital is not a campus divorced from its surroundings, and the importance of our partnerships and links with the Dublin 8 community is reflected in the Strategic Programme 2021 - 2025. The hospital is well placed to be a leader in the stalled programme for renewal of The Liberties district, in particular the development of a world class Health Innovation Corridor in Dublin 8.

St James’s Hospital welcomes the future opening of the National Children’s Hospital, phase 2 of the St Luke’s Radiation Centre, and the transfer of the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital facility to the campus in due course. A key priority is the development of a long-term capital investment plan that will ensure St James’s Hospital is a national leader in providing a comprehensive range of healthcare services to treat the patient from birth into adulthood, all in one central campus.

The Hospital’s Board of Directors has approved the Strategic Programme that I have set out as CEO. As a team, I am confident that we can advance this framework to ensure St James’s Hospital continues to evolve as a leading healthcare organisation, nationally and internationally.

Yours sincerely,

Mary Day CEO