Today will see staff at Mount Carmel hospital in Dublin deliver the last baby at the facility.

THE Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, August 22, 1949, was an important day for the then Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles Mc Quaid. On that day Mount Carmel Hospital opened in Dublin run by the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary.

A meeting between unions representing staff at Dublin's Mount Carmel Hospital and the liquidator is due to take place this afternoon.

SIPTU is calling on the Government to ensure that all options are explored to save jobs at Mount Carmel hospital in Dublin.

Nama’s decision to stop financially propping up Mount Carmel Hospital, and the jobs of more than 300 people, came after it suffered more than three years of losses since it acquired the hospital’s loans in 2010.

Minister for Health James Reilly has confirmed that the government considered purchasing Mount Carmel Hospital in December.

PRIVATE hospital group Mount Carmel expects revenues to have increased 5% to €67 million for last year but the company remains locked in discussions with AIB regarding its future.

ALMOST €100,000 has been lopped off the asking price of Mount Carmel, down to €460,000 from an autumn hope of €550,000.

PUBLIC sector workers have accused the Government of “emotional blackmail” over claims that seriously ill patients and the Irish economy will suffer as a direct result of wide-scale industrial action.

STAFF at the Bon Secours hospitals in Dublin, Cork, Tralee and Galway are to begin strike action on February 8 over the private health group’s decision to impose pay cuts of up to 5%.

SIPTU and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Union (INMO) have served a strike notice on the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin which could effectively close the hospital down.

IRELAND’S five largest private hospital chains are set to be targeted by widescale strikes if staff are forced to accept “illegal” pay cuts of between 4%-10%.

CONTROVERSIAL plans to co-locate public and private hospitals at six sites around the country are not likely to be affected by budget changes to capital allowance schemes.

I REFER to your excellent feature article (Irish Examiner July, 18 on the problems that arise when trying to devise a fair and equitable system of compensating babies and their families injured due to negligence at birth.

THE National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) which has paid out millions of euro to private hospitals for treating patients on public waiting lists is refusing to reveal which hospitals are getting the money.