FEARS WERE expressed yesterday for the future of nearly 200 health sector jobs in the southwest.
About 100 jobs at a US-owned healthcare benefits firm in Castleisland, Co Kerry, were believed to be at risk after the company announced a review of operations.
In Co Cork, a private medical clinic employing 75 announced it was suspending operations because of a loss of VHI cover.
Cynthia Michener, spokeswoman for Castleisland-based company Aetna, said no decision had been made on its future but operating costs and speedy delivery to “new geographies” were factors in its review of the group’s overseas operations.
The company is Castleisland’s biggest employer and is also the European head office for the healthcare benefits firm, one of the largest in the United States, which offers health insurance and benefits products as well as health management programmes for multinational employers, government agencies and individuals.
Some 106 people are employed in the Castleisland operation, which underwent an expansion in 2008, when then minister for enterprise Mary Coughlan announced the creation of 70 IDA-supported jobs over three years.
The company took over the facility 20 years ago from New York Life Insurance Corporation, which established the operation in 1988 as a claims processing centre.
Staff said yesterday they believed more than 100 of the jobs were at risk.
Ms Michener said a 30-day consultation process would take place regarding the Castleisland operation, and the input of employees would be sought as part of this.
In another jobs blow to the region, the Cork Medical Centre (CMC), which opened in Mahon last October, ceased to operate yesterday. Contracts with its 75 staff were suspended.
The facility has been closed until an agreement with VHI Healthcare or another solution can be found, a spokesman for operators Sheehan Medical said last night.
Management conducted individual meetings with members of staff at the clinic.
The closure followed an attempt by Sheehan Medical to secure the future of the clinic with a price offer that was rejected by VHI Healthcare.
Sheehan Medical said that in a bid to avoid closure it had offered to match terms and conditions agreed by the VHI three months ago with St Vincent’s Private Hospital in Dublin.
The healthcare insurer refused the offer and said it advised the clinic operators two weeks ago that it would not be covering it this year.
CMC chairman James Sheehan said the company cannot obtain any more money from banks to keep the clinic open and said the VHI was refusing to debate the issue.
VHI Healthcare said Sheehan Medical had been advised of its position in February and no change to that stance would arise before 2012.
It said the clinic’s offer to match St Vincent’s prices was “not relevant” as the private hospital had been in existence since 1974.