National Maternity Hospital Master says concerns over new facility 'don't hold water'

Dr Jennifer Walsh, Consultant Obstetrician/Gynaecologist at The National Maternity Hospital (NMH); Master of the NMH Professor Shane Higgins; and Ms Mary Brosnan, NMH director of Midwifery and Nursing, at a press briefing addressing concerns about the planned move of the National Maternity Hospital to St Vincent’s. Picture: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

The Master of the National Maternity Hospital has said that when one “drills down” into each of the issues being raised about the proposed new hospital site at St Vincent’s in Dublin, “none of them hold water”.

Asked about concerns raised by one of his predecessors Dr Peter Boylan, current NMH master Shane Higgins said he isn’t sure Dr Boylan “has the understanding of the proposed move and the detail” of it.

Professor Higgins and a number of colleagues set out their stall for why they believe the plans for the new maternity hospital should go ahead and why they’re “100% certain” it will have clinical independence despite the concerns being raised.

The new National Maternity Hospital is proposed to move from its Dublin city centre site at Holles Street to a new purpose-built site alongside St Vincent’s Hospital to the south of the city.

However, the previous ownership of the site by the Religious Sisters of Charity, along with wording about “clinically appropriate” treatment in the hospital’s legal framework has raised concerns about whether there will be any influence from a religious ethos at the new hospital.

Opponents of the plan say the State should own the land on which the hospital will be built, as opposed to leasing the land for 299 years as proposed.

A model of the new National Maternity Hospital planned for the St Vincent's campus. Picture: Gareth Chaney Collins

Furthermore, Cabinet held off signing off on the plans until next Tuesday at the earliest and the topic has been the subject of much scrutiny in recent weeks with the matters being discussed in the Dáil, at Oireachtas committee hearings and in wider media.

At the press briefing, Prof Higgins said he and colleagues don’t believe there will be any impact from “any Catholic ethos” on the new hospital and that there is a clear need for an upgrade on the current facilities at Holles Street.

“We believe that the legal framework protects the hospital, protects our independence, our operational and clinical independence,” Prof Higgins said.

“I think women and their families have every right to mistrust instruments of the State, politicians, religious orders and the healthcare services as they’ve been so badly let down in the past.”

They might rightly argue ‘why listen to the people who will benefit from this relocation’.

But, Prof Higgins said, the new hospital project was backed by 400 clinicians around the country in a letter to the Taoiseach. 

He also said he would be open to the words “clinically appropriate” being more clearly defined or removed from the legal agreement but stressed he did not believe it would be an issue in any event.

The master’s colleagues also emphasised the inadequacy of facilities at the current NMH and said that the new site would offer much improved facilities and better care for patients.

Also addressing the briefing was Alice Murphy, a solicitor with Mason, Hayes and Curran; she emphasised that the Minister of Health would have a “golden share” which allow for direct intervention by the minister.

“None of us think the golden share is ever likely to be needed, but it’s important it’s there and present,” she said, adding that it was less a “Plan B” and more a “Plan Z” given it wasn’t believed such a golden share would ever need to be used.