Dr. John Holian:

With reference to whether the Catholic ethos hangs over everything we are discussing, I have been a consultant at St. Vincent’s hospital for more than a decade, and it is a wholly secular organisation. My appointment in 2010 predated the departure of the Religious Sisters of Charity by several years. Although it is possible to argue that, in theory, a Catholic ethos obtained until their departure, that is not what applied in practice. The ethos that applied then and still applies now, as seen in our mission statement, revolves around our core values of dignity, compassion, respect, quality and advocacy, while striving to maintain excellence in clinical care, research and medical education. These are the values we would expect of any major academic medical institution, whether here or elsewhere in the world. While I fully understand the genuine concerns people have, the assertion that St. Vincent's hospital or the new national maternity hospital at Elm Park might be vulnerable to influence of a Catholic nature does not relate to a hospital I recognise, nor one in which I would wish to work. Personally, and I speak on behalf of the medical board of St. Vincent's, which includes more than 250 physicians, I have never had to explain or justify a clinical decision to a religious person or body. The culture at St. Vincent’s hospital is, very simply, one committed to offering excellence in clinical care to our patients and their families and that is why we see this venture as a necessary step, but also as a natural step given the close collaborative links that exist between our two institutions in allowing us to deliver state-of-the-art medical care in a world-class facility.