Sir, - There is an illuminating drama unfolding over the proposed closure of St Michael's Private Hospital run by the Sisters of Mercy. The order has acted in a manner akin to numerous multinationals who abandon their workforce in Ireland to relocate elsewhere. News of the imminent closure appeared in the media on the 31st March 1999 without any prior discussions with the hospital staff. Overnight the hospital was pronounced dead. All discussion to date to reverse the decision has been met with aloof indifference behind a smoke screen of an indefensible financial rationale.
As a consultant psychiatrist with admitting rights to the hospital, I have been stunned by the sense of betrayal the full-time hospital staff are experiencing.
The hospital is a community hospital, essentially, serving the needs of the elderly from the catchment areas of Blackrock, Dun Laoghaire, Bray and Wicklow. They are on small pensions and have minimum cover from the VHI, usually with their subscriptions paid by family members. This is borne out by the fact that some 50 per cent of its patients hold medical cards at any one time.
So, what's going to happen if it closes as planned on July 31st, 1999?
The traditional client base of St Michael's Private Hospital will have to compete for beds in more exclusive southside private hospitals with additional financial costs.
The general practitioners in the area will lose an invaluable resource.
The concentration of the expertise of 80 consultants who have admitting rights will be dissipated.
The 94 employees, both nursing and lay, will be forced out of their jobs.
The building and grounds will inevitably be sold to property developers for millions of pounds.
The moneys accrued from the sale will join those from Carysfort College.
St. Michael's Private Hospital is an integral part of the community, playing an invaluable role which legitimises beyond question the continuity of its services. Its survival should become the burning issue in the forthcoming local elections. Tens of thousands of community members have directly benefited from the inpatient service's since it opened in 1963 in a renovated laundry. (For 10 years it operated an obstetrical unit). Hundreds of thousands of patients' relatives have crossed its threshold, thousands of general practitioners and consultants have used its resources, countless numbers of nurses and lay staff have dedicated their lives to it, caring members of the Sisters of Mercy have imbued it with tender loving care. St. Michael's deserves better.
In order for its proposed closure on the 31st July 1999 to be prevented it requires the outcry of the silent. It is time for those in the Order of the Sisters of Mercy who are responsible for the instigation of such a dispassionate modus operandi look into their hearts and ask what is meant by "mercy". - Yours, etc., Michael Corry,
Consultant Psychiatrist Clane, Co Kildare.