Mags GarganCatholic hospitals have caved in to Government pressure
Catholic hospitals have caved in to Government pressure which has undermined their ethos, according to a senior Mercy nun involved in running the congregation’s healthcare ministry.
Sr Helena O’Donoghue RSM, chair of the Mater Campus Hospital Development (MCHD) board, said that voluntary hospitals “have bent the knee” and succumbed to financial pressures”, giving up power in areas “like appointments, services, accountability lines”. It was now time “to take up with energy, commitment and passion the right of the voluntary to exist,” she said.
She said that hospitals in the voluntary sector are feeling under “attack” from the State. However, writing in the current issue of The Furrow journal, Sr O’Donoghue avoided reference to the Mater’s controversial decision to announce that it would comply with the law permitting abortion.
She warned that congregations “did not pay much attention to the gradual erosion of our independent decision-making rights, our particular culture and ethos”.
She urged Catholic and other voluntary hospitals to stand up for their right to State support while maintaining their distinct ethos.
“A faith-based facility today provides a particular evangelical and transcendental quality which speaks to and offers hope to the vulnerable heart of society.
“This is no obstacle to our partnering with the State and others of good will, in providing healthcare for all who are sick, irrespective of class, creed, race or gender,” she said.
“However, there is a clear need now to awaken the general public and our Christian communities to the vulnerability of the voluntary hospital in their midst, especially at a time of uncertainty and maybe even attack.”
O’Donoghue said she believed the State had a moral obligation to fund the voluntary sector.
“While recognising our own real failures from time to time, the voluntary sector, according to all current accreditations and inspections, provides a more than excellent service comparable and complementary to that of the State, reflecting diversity, initiative and partnership, enhancing overall provision. So why seek to dispose of it? Is there a hidden agenda?”