Maternity hospital opposed due to potential ethos change

An objection was raised during a planning hearing into the development of the new national maternity hospital in south Dublin by a woman concerned at potential changes to the Catholic ethos on the St Vincent’s Hospital campus, should the project go ahead.

The second and final day of An Bord Pleanála’s public hearing into the HSE’s planning application for the hospital was dominated by concerns over the area not being equipped to deal with the extra traffic the development will bring.

However, Fionnuala Sherwin told the hearing she was opposed to the development due to potential changes to the ethos of St Vincent’s Hospital.

She said she strongly objected to the proposal by the HSE on the grounds that the new hospital “will be performing procedures which are of the vairones of the original Catholic ethos of St Vincent’s Hospital”.

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“The new St Vincent’s Hospital Group will be a corporate entity and that will be the start in Ireland of corporate entities whether they be private corporations for profit or greed and in the past the Catholic nuns provided hospitals without that,” Ms Sherwin added. “I respectfully request that An Bord Pleanála refuse permission for the site of this hospital.”

It was announced this week that the Sisters of Charity are to withdraw from ownership of its hospitals, including St Vincent’s, after 183 years. This followed major controversy over a Government decision to give sole ownership of the proposed €300 million hospital to the congregation.

Ethical guidelines based on Catholic canon law will cease to apply within the St Vincent’s Healthcare Group following the decision. The move to guidelines based on current laws and best clinical practice is likely to result in the hospital providing procedures, such as elective sterilisation, that were hitherto considered incompatible with its Catholic ethos.

Traffic concerns

Meanwhile, Brendan O’Brien, Dublin City Council’s head of technical services, said he was confident that while the hospital development was significant, ample procedures were in place to deal with traffic concerns of residents.

Mr O’Brien said the council was happy with the “robustness” of the traffic data used in the planning process which involved counting on a 24 hour, seven day a week basis.

He acknowledged that at certain times there can be traffic congestion on Nutley Lane but also stressed that there were “large portions” of the day where there was none.

Planning consultant Tom Philips along with his colleague Ciaran McKeon were representing the Nutley Residents Association and the Elm Park Sports Club.

Final decision

Mr Philips queried if an application for project of a similar scale that was not a maternity hospital would have the same treatment. However, the council noted that all applications were accessed in the same way.

Mr Philips stressed that the principle of the new hospital was fully accepted but he questioned and asked the inspector to question whether this was the best location when making the decision.

“I think in the review of this scheme that there is a degree of people taking a benign view of the detail because the principle is so important,” he added.

The HSE noted in its conclusion that the development of the new hospital was of the utmost importance for future births.

An Bord Pleanála have now concluded the two-day hearing and will make their final decision in due course.