The new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) will operate without any hint of a Christian ethos or any influence from the Sisters of Charity, the Minister for Health has confirmed.

The new hospital is being built on land donated by the St Vincent’s Hospital Group that was set up by the Sisters of Charity. The Sisters have announced that they are pulling out of the Group and a new company is being set up to run the hospital in their absence. The company will include members of the present NMH on Holles Street.

The Minister said the agreement would confirm the hospital’s clinical and operational independence and it would ‘unequivocally, copper-fasten the principle that patient care would be delivered without religious, ethnic or other distinction’. He said “any relevant medical procedure, which is in accordance with the laws of the land, will be carried out at the new hospital”.

The decision was welcomed by former NMH master Dr Peter Boylan, one of the staunchest opponents to any vestige of Catholic influence over the ethos of the new hospital. Dr Boylan said he was delighted there will be “no possibility of religious ethos influencing clinical care” and welcomed the revision of governance arrangements to “ensure full clinical and operational independence.”