‘No religious interference’ in national maternity hospital

The State’s investment in the proposed €300m national maternity hospital will be protected and it will be free of religious interference, according to Health Minister Simon Harris.

The Master of the National Maternity Hospital (NMH), Rhona O’Mahony, said the hospital will “be clinically and operationally entirely independent in line with national maternity policy”.

Mr Harris and Dr O’Mahony’s comments follow reports that the Sisters of Charity will be sole owners of the hospital when it transfers from its current site at Holles St to St Vincent’s University Hospital campus at Elm Park.