KPMG HAS been appointed as liquidator to a €90 million private hospital in Cork, which closed in March with the loss of 73 jobs just five months after opening with the promise of creating up to 500 staff positions.
More than 60 people attended a creditors meeting for the Cork Medical Centre yesterday, where they learned that the hospital had closed with unsecured liabilities of over €5 million, including €3.5 million owed to the company behind the project, Sheehan Medical Ltd.
Among those who attended yesterday’s meeting at the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork were former staff who are owed over €150,000 in unpaid wages, while it also emerged yesterday that the Revenue Commissioners are owed €242,000 in unpaid levies and duties.
Former staff welcomed the appointment and said they hoped the liquidator would be able to investigate what had happened that had led to the closure of the Mahon facility so soon after it opened.
The centre’s chief executive, James Sheehan, rejected suggestions staff were treated badly and said all staff were given statutory notice that the company did not have money to pay them after it became clear the VHI was not approving the hospital for cover.
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