A leading surgeon and founder of Dublin's Blackrock Clinic has said he fears the caring ethos of hospitals run by Catholic religious orders will die out as the hospitals are sold off for profit.
Writing in today's edition of the Irish Catholic, Mr James Sheehan, an orthopaedic surgeon, says if religious orders continue to sell off their hospitals, they will do a "great injustice" to the church. Mr Sheehan also questions what role the Catholic hierarchy plays in the sale of the hospitals.
Mr Sheehan says no private beds have been made available in the past 15 years, despite the "enormous need" for acute hospital beds. The situation had been made worse by the closure of a number of hospitals, including St Gabriel's in Cabinteely, Dublin, the private wing of St Michael's Hospital, Dun Laoghaire, and the Bon Secours Hospital in Tuam, Co Galway.
The sale of hospitals by religious orders for profit is "inexplicable", he says.
Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Mr Sheehan said religious orders may be "running scared" because they now had so few members remaining in the community. "They seem to feel the solution is to sell off the hospitals, but they are not looking into the possibility of calling in the laity, such as was done in schools like Blackrock College."
In these situations, religious orders had established lay boards or management teams and appointed order members to ensure their prevailing ethos of charitable service was maintained, Mr Sheehan said.
The surgeon also questioned whether the orders were receiving the best financial advice when making the decision to sell their hospitals. He cited the case of St Joseph's Hospital in Raheny, Dublin, sold to a private buyer for £1.2 million and later bought by the Eastern Health Board for £10 million.
The Mater Private hospital in Dublin was sold for £22 million by the Mercy Sisters recently, and Aut Even Hospital in Kilkenny, run by the St John of God order, is currently on the market, Mr Sheehan pointed out. In his article, Mr Sheehan questions whether the Catholic hierarchy has a role in the transactions to sell off hospitals. "Cardinal Connell is chairman of the Mater Hospital and has obviously given the situation great thought. Unfortunately, no one is privileged to his thoughts."
A spokesman for the Catholic hierarchy said the religious orders were autonomous. There would be a "co-operative spirit" between them and the hierarchy. However, an archbishop would have no say in whether a particular order decided to sell a hospital, although he might request that it not "pull out". "But it would be their call."
The Mercy Sisters, the Bon Secour Sisters and the St John of God order were unavailable for comment on the sales of the hospitals.