Mount Carmel’s services aimed at serving mother rather than child

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.

The hospital will close in something over a week with the tragic loss of 300 jobs. Booked-in mothers have been sent into orbit but most will be facilitated at the Coombe or the National Maternity Hospital.

There are terrible stories of personal loss hidden behind these newspaper headlines. But the fact that Nama closed the hospital demonstrates that we shouldn’t rely on private interests to deliver basic health care.