Expectant mothers and their partners expressed shock, disappointment and stress at yesterday’s announcement that Mount Carmel Hospital is to close.
Sheena Crean from Ballsbridge, Dublin, who is 20 weeks pregnant with her first baby and was due to deliver at the hospital, said she was “stressed out of her mind” following the announcement yesterday.
She said she had already paid €1,200, or about half the consultant, booking and hospital fees due (the remaining costs being covered under a private insurance plan). “I’m hoping I will be transferred on the same package with the same consultant in a different hospital. Otherwise the fees paid [to date] will to some extent be wasted: a certain amount of those were for the scans . . . but again it’s all part of an overall package which includes the actual delivery which will now not happen [in Mount Carmel].”
The husband of a woman who was due to give birth at the hospital in four weeks said they had already paid the full hospital fees upfront, with the last payment made within the past two weeks.
“We’re out of pocket to just shy of €2,000. When they asked for the money, we didn’t know, but they must have known it was going to fold . . . We’re so far down the pecking order we might never see that money.”
Last night a spokeswoman for the provisional liquidator said patients who had already paid deposits and other fees would be dealt with on a case by case basis. “The liquidators are liaising closely with medical consultants and the hospital management to ascertain the position in relation to any deposits that may be outstanding to patients.”
She said a date had not been set as to when patients would cease to be treated at the hospital but that “all expectant mothers will receive necessary maternity care at Mount Carmel until such a time as arrangements have been made to transfer them to an alternative maternity hospital”.
However, Ms Crean said she had established a relationship with her consultant and midwives at the hospital and was “devastated that I now have to go elsewhere”.
Some parents-to-be reported having difficulty getting through to a helpline set up for patient queries and said an answering machine was no longer taking messages yesterday afternoon.
Emma Hegarty from Stepaside, who is 28 weeks pregnant and was discharged from the hospital on Thursday night having been treated for hyperemesis gravidarum, said she had been unable to get through to the helpline yesterday to get clarity on whether she would receive further treatment at the facility if needed.
“It’s stressful to think that I have to look at another hospital,” she said adding that her hope was that she would be able to remain with her current consultant. “I can’t even think about looking for another obstetrician having been with the same person . . . because you know them, you trust them,” she said.
Barry and Mairéad Jones from Shankill are expecting their third child. They had decided to return to Mount Carmel for this birth after their second child was born there. She is 19 weeks pregnant.
“It was a difficult decision financially speaking but we had a really positive experience there. We really felt that we were treated like individuals – it was a very personal experience,” Mr Jones said. He felt particularly sorry for women and couples who were due to have their babies in the coming days and weeks, he said.