IRELAND
The Times
Ellen Coyne, Senior Ireland News Reporter
July 21 2017
The Times
The HSE chief executive has suggested there was confusion and “tension” about how much control religious groups had in hospitals, adding that he welcomed plans to distance the Catholic Church from national hospitals.
Tony O’Brien praised a proposal by Simon Harris, the health minister, to carry out a review of voluntary hospitals after the national uproar over a decision to let a religious order own a new maternity hospital.
In March The Times reported that the Sisters of Charity would own the new National Maternity Hospital after it was built with almost €300 million of taxpayers’ money on the order’s land.
Following the controversy, the sisters announced that the order would be stepping back completely from healthcare for the first time in 183 years. It will no longer own St Vincent’s healthcare group, the existing hospital or the new maternity hospital.
Negotiations on the maternity hospital being owned by a new private group, are continuing.
The health minister has expressed concern that a publicly built maternity hospital would not be publicly owned. Mr Harris is also bringing forward plans for a national review of religious involvement in health.
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