Hospital creditors set to lose €4m

MORE than 100 unsecured creditors of a former private hospital who between them are owed more than €4 million are unlikely to receive any money following liquidation of the company.

This was confirmed yesterday by Kieran Wallace, liquidator for Cork Medical Centre (CMC) Operations Ltd, and partner with KPMG.

Mr Wallace said he had been in contact with creditors, adding “it’s unlikely there will be any money for unsecured creditors”.

Among the largest creditors are Sheehan Medical Ltd, the company behind the development, owed €3.5m. A Mallow-based company, Clyda Healthcare Services, is owed almost €218,000, the second largest sum outstanding.

Philip Sheehan, who was chief operations officer with CMC, was a director of Clyda Healthcare until last month when he filed notice with the Company Registrations Office of a change of directors.

Mr Wallace also said KPMG was “seeking legal advice” in relation to the lease agreed between CMC and John Cleary Developments (JCD), the landlord of the premises that housed the €90m facility which closed in March just five months after it opened.

Clarification is being sought as to whether the agreement lease is still in place. If it is, it is unclear what bearing, if any, this may have on “an agreement in principle” reached last month between JCD and Mater Private Healthcare, which has confirmed its interest in taking over the facility.

CMC closed in March with the loss of 75 jobs. Staff are owed more than €150,000 and Revenue is owed €242,660.

Sheehan Medical Ltd blamed its closure on a refusal by the VHI to provide cover at the facility.

Mater Private chief executive, Fergus Clancy, has said the successful re-opening of CMC was largely predicated on their ability to offer innovative healthcare.

CMC had promised to employ close to 500 people when fully operational and staff were hired in the fortnight prior to its closure. It had promised to carry out up to 39,000 patient treatments per year and had top-of-the range diagnostic equipment worth €8m under a lease agreement with Siemens.

The hospital had 75 single in-patient bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms.