Why Do Projects Fail?

The National Children's Hospital & Its Failure

Projects are defined as the following: a complex, non-routine, one-time effort limited by time and resources such as finance, with specifications designed to meet customer needs, bringing beneficial change or added value. 

According to Mieritz (2012) projects mainly fail due to two reasons: functional issues & delays. They can also fail due to quality issues, high cost, cancellations, failure of implementation or rejection by management to get the 'go ahead'.

There are four stages within a project which include: 
  1. Defining, the project objectives, goals & teams are selected 
  2. Planning, detailing the specific of the project such as the equipment, staff & financial requirements in the form of a budget along with defining the quality expected
  3. Executing is the largest phase of a project in which the product is created & produced along with documentation and reports to illustrate the efforts of the team on the project, timings and moneys spend to ensure the project stays on track. The records allow for the project manager to identify is issues are arising & implement changes if required. 
  4. Delivering consists of three elements: the delivery of the product/service to the desired market, re-deploying project resources such as people to other projects & the post-project review to analyse and identify if the project was a success or a failure. 

The National Children Hospital is one of the biggest projects currently in Ireland, alongside the National Broadband Plan - which have both faced failures.

The initial proposal for the construction of the hospital had stated the Matter Hospital for its site which was refused, in 2012 an alternative of St.Vincent Hospital was selected & yet again it was rejected. In 2016, another alternative site of St. James Hospital was put forward and was finally, approved in April 2016. 

The project has been in the pipeline for the past 40 years and although building of the hospital has begun on the site, the project is still within the planning phase as the required resources have yet to be defined & set in stone. This is due to the fact the rising cost of the project, which was estimated at €650 million to now standing in excess of €1.7 billion. A difference of 26053.85%, now a bill to be paid by the hard working tax payer

Project managers are ultimately responsible for performance - the lack of responsibility by the minister of health has been demonstrated as with time, the Minster of Health position is given to different people. The handover of the project is a failure as it has been the responsibility of 4 Ministers & yet there has been no progress or concrete budget set. The Government and its selected Ministers have the duty of working for the public in the best interest of the public - which has not been demonstrated in regards to the NCH due to the lack of defining the financial resources & funding which is a result of the taxes paid by hard working society. 

The role of the project manager is to ensure the project is under control in order to ensure the budget, resources and equipment are efficiently used. The use of finance within the NCH project is absolutely inefficient and shows a lack of control, which refers back to the lack of responsibility held by the acting Minister of Health. 

The NCH, although is currently being built and in progress has already failed and was doomed to fail due to the lack of planning of the specific required finance, resources in people and equipment - a failure resulting from high costs & functional issues of the Minster of Health. 

Although the failures which have faced the project, it may be redeemable - may be. If the Government & The Minister for Health face these problems head on, accept responsibility for the failures, identify areas which need to be resolved and implement the corrective measures - ALONG - with finding a solution for the shortage of nursing staff and increase the staff morale within the health service - it may be redeemable.

Only time will tell & with a children in need of a new hospital - time is not of the essence. 



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