Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to read a letter I received from an employee. It states:

I work at Mount Carmel Hospital and I am obviously devastated by the decision to close the hospital, make my job redundant and send me and the rest of the staff of 300 people to join the dole.

However, I am also astounded at the lack of interest that appears to have been shown towards us and the hospital.

On the one hand, I do understand that to some it is just another business, a private hospital supported by NAMA and effectively owned by people who have less interest in the hospital than its potential for property development.

On the other hand, I cannot understand why nobody who might claim to have an interest in the social and political implications, let alone the economics of delivering on a commitment to a mix of private and public health care resources, seems to be doing anything to intervene.

Mount Carmel had a turnover of €29m last year and an accounting loss of about €1.05m.

With cost-saving measures in place this year, the hospital was on target to deliver a break-even result in 2014, with the possibility of making a small profit.

If the issue is debt, closure looks like an action driven by a short-sighted focus on immediate finance and a short-term view of where and how money is and should be invested in health care.

In the absence of the kind of engagement and discussion that is devoted to other enterprises, it appears to be facilitated by an ability to 'wash our hands' of what this means for the future of the staff, the patients and the longer-term public interest. ...

Earlier this week the minister was speaking about the reduction in public waiting lists. Mount Carmel treated many of these patients last year and was preparing to treat 1,200 more in the first few months of this year. These patients will now go back on to public waiting lists.

Mount Carmel is also currently caring for sick and elderly public patients who were being kept on trolleys in public hospitals. Some of those patients were transferred to Mount Carmel after their operations in the public system.

These patients will now be transferred back to the public hospitals to be 'cared for' on trolleys in A&E.

As a country we bail out banks and we prop up loss making five-star hotels and golf clubs, and get exercised about some quite superficial concerns in the political and social arenas, yet allowing a fully functional hospital to close does not appear to be an issue worthy of the attention of anyone with the wit or will to help or care.

There were offers on the table for NAMA to consider up to last Thursday, two of which were apparently turned down by NAMA, who decided along with Gerry Conlon to go to the High Court and have a liquidator appointed.

Surely it is in the public interest to sell the hospital as a going concern rather than fund redundancy and social welfare payments to over 300 staff.

This letter is signed "Regards, Fiona".

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