[ad_1]
The announcement that the Vatican had approved a decision by the Sisters of Charity to transfer ownership of the Saint Vincent Health Group to a new independent charity is believed to have cleared the way for the construction of a new National Maternity Hospital in Elm Park in Dublin.
Health sources indicated that the announcement of the order was significant, but “there was still a lot of work to be done in terms of proceeding” with the project. Despite the economic challenges posed by the Covid-19 crisis, the capital budget from which the new hospital would be financed remains “largely unaffected.”
A spokesman for the National Maternity Hospital said they now “expect the main construction to begin without delay.”
Meanwhile, former teacher at the National Maternity Hospital, Dr. Peter Boylan, said there was still a “need to know who the true owners of the St. Vincent Hospital Group (SVH CLG) are.” The “memorandum and relevant articles of association must be seen,” he said.
“What precise area of land is being disposed of? [transferred]? he asked, and asked if it would include the parking lot, the Private Hospital of Saint Vincent and the Hospital of Saint Michael in Dún Laoghaire. He believed that correspondence on the matter between the Sisters of Charity and the Vatican “should be placed in the public domain and made available for inspection.”
In his opinion, the governance arrangements for the new National Maternity Hospital should be the same as for the new National Children’s Hospital, which is located next to St James’s Hospital, with “separate government, a different board, separate clinical government and a budget. separated, “he said.
“We need more clarity on what it really means (announcement by the Sisters of Charity),” she said.
Co-leader of the Social Democrats, Róisín Shortall, welcomed the Sisters’ announcement, but noted that the new agreement “does not constitute public ownership of the site.”
She said today’s development “should be viewed as the first stage in a process in which SVH CLG should now be required to transfer ownership of the site to the state.” Public investment in the new hospital, of up to 500 million euros, must be protected by public ownership of the site on which it is built. ”
A new National Maternity Hospital was urgently needed and it is unfortunate that it is taking so long to reach a situation where this much-needed project can continue. Today’s announcement can only be seen as stage one of a process in which the state can legally own this site and stage two must involve ownership of the site that is transferred to the state, “he said.
“We also need assurances that the governance structure of the new maternity hospital will be completely independent and separate from the corporate structure of St Vincent’s Holdings CLG. The governance structure proposed in the Mulvey report does not provide that independence, ”he said.
It had always been “clearly clear that there could be no full public ownership of a hospital that was privately owned, whether religious or otherwise, and that such ownership would have significant implications for both the spirit of the hospital and the protection of the hospital” . public purse
“It would be a serious mistake for the government to contemplate the delivery of this valuable asset and would repeat the mistakes of the past where the taxpayer-financed health and education infrastructure is endowed with private interests,” he said.
The National Maternity Hospital spokesperson said the hospital was “enormously grateful for the role played by the Sisters of Charity in healthcare in Ireland for two centuries, culminating in the release of these valuable healthcare assets “, said.
“We would like to pay tribute to the San Vicente Hospital Group, HSE Estates, the design team and our own staff for the work done so far over a long period and their continued determination to carry out this priority government project,” he added.
[ad_2]