IRELAND
Irish Times
Nicholas Kearns
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.
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