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New National Maternity Hospital Will Not Be ‘run by Nuns’

By Nicholas Kearns
Irish Times
April 26, 2017

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/new-national-maternity-hospital-will-not-be-run-by-nuns-1.3061103

The proposed new National Maternity Hospital would be located in the middle of the Elm Park campus.

The proposed new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) at the St Vincent’s hospital campus at Elm Park in Dublin will not be run by nuns. It will be run by an independent board under a new company. It will operate in accordance with the law of the land, not canon law – just as it does now. It will have no religious ethos.

The deal brokered by Kieran Mulvey after lengthy mediation says the company called the National Maternity Hospital at Elm Park DAC will exercise all key powers “in an undiluted manner” in order to preserve its autonomy “in specific clinical and operational matters”. It could not be clearer.

And lest there be any doubt this is spelled out fully in the agreement between the two hospitals. This autonomy covers “clinical and operational independence in the provision of maternity, gynaecology, obstetrics and neonatal services (without religious ethnic or other distinction), in the hospital at Elm Park, Dublin and the provision of medical, surgical, nursing midwifery and other health services”. The agreement says we control our budget, and that we make our own agreements with the Health Service Executive on our service-level agreements. The first chairperson when the hospital opens will be nominated by the NMH directors.

Ministerial lien

A ministerial lien on the premises will mean the owners of the building cannot sell it without the Minister’s consent. So it is very misleading for people to claim there will be a “gift” of a new maternity hospital to nuns. St Vincent’s Hospital Group (SVHG) is in fact giving, at no charge, a chunk of its campus at Elm Park to a new National Maternity Hospital. They will not control it and they cannot sell it. It will be in the middle of the campus and will take probably five years to construct and be ready.

Nobody could seriously imagine that the NMH is or would be moving to this location in circumstances where it could be turned out at short notice. On the contrary, its security of tenure will be provided for by appropriate legal instrument when the heads of agreement are committed to final legal form. Therefore, in so far as ownership is concerned, the ownership retained by SVHG will be as far apart from the usual notions of ownership as one can imagine.

 

 

 

 

 




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