Maternity hospital dispute needs compromise, expert says

A compromise should be reached on the governance of the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) if it is relocated to the St Vincent's hospital site, the chairman of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Ireland, Dr Peter Boylan, has said.

The two hospitals are currently locked in a protracted dispute over the terms of the NMH’s move from Holles Street to the St Vincent’s campus.

Holles Street is resisting demands by St Vincent’s that the NMH’s governance be subsumed into that of St Vincent’s hospital.

St Vincent’s, owned by the Religious Sisters of Charity, has said it cannot operate a large healthcare campus with competing systems of clinical and corporate governance.

"I don't understand why the Sisters of Charity want to retain control [of the NMH]. That will cause lots of problems for them from an ethical point of view," Dr Boylan told RTÉ Radio One's Morning Ireland.

“There are no ethical issues when it comes to a liver transplant or looking after people with cystic fibrosis or diabetes.

“There are no challenges there, but there are serious challenges when it comes to things like tubal ligation, IVF, abortion, gender reassignment surgery.

“None of these is allowed in Catholic-controlled hospitals around the world. It’s a puzzle why the Sisters of Charity want to be involved.

“I can’t imagine them being comfortable with a hospital, effectively under their control, doing these things.”

When it was pointed out that the chairman of the St Vincent’s Group was guaranteeing the NMH’s complete independence, Dr Boylan said: “That doesn’t stack up with the governance structure where the National Maternity Hospital would be answerable to the board of the St Vincent’s Group, which is controlled by the Sisters of Charity.

“It just doesn’t make sense. Despite what’s being said. They can’t do a tubal ligation in St Vincent’s hospital at present. The word that’s been used is you can if it is ‘clinically indicated’.

“That rang a bell for me. In the 1990s when the National Maternity Hospital was doing tubal ligations I was summoned to the archbishop’s palace and I was carpeted and told we could not do those procedures unless it was ‘clinically indicated’.

“These things need to be a matter between a patient and a doctor. They wouldn’t be under the proposed governance.

“I don’t understand how the Religious Sisters of Charity would be able to tolerate that activity on a campus in a hospital of which they are in control.

“I’ve seen the plan [for the hospital], it is a good one. The design is superb. A compromise should be reached by reasonable people.”

‘Sensational tale’

Last week the chairman of St Vincent’s hospital dismissed as “groundless and sensational” claims that the nuns who own the hospital are trying to “take control” of Irish maternity services.

Jimmy Menton said it was ridiculous to suggest the hospital's stance on the proposed transfer of the NMH from Holles Street to its campus "raised the spectre of a Catholic ethos" controlling the obstetric care of female patients.

“It is regrettable that media sources have been fed a groundless, sensational tale of nuns attempting to control Irish maternity services,” he said in a communication to St Vincent’s staff.

Mr Menton said St Vincent’s was satisfied the work of NMH consultants would not be compromised by the values and ethics of his hospital, “which are in no way inconsistent with obstetric and gynaecological services legally available in Ireland”.