{"id":504182,"date":"2026-06-17T10:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T10:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/504182\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T10:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T10:36:08","slug":"wide-of-the-target-regarding-voluntary-hospitals-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/504182\/","title":{"rendered":"Wide of the target regarding voluntary hospitals \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir, \u2013 John McManus is right <\/a>that institutions receiving substantial public funding must be accountable. However, his characterisation of voluntary hospitals misses the mark (\u201cRotunda consultant row is just the tip of the iceberg<\/a>,\u201d June 10th).<\/p>\n

For more than two centuries, voluntary hospitals have been central to Irish healthcare<\/a>. Many predate the State itself and have been responsible for some of the most important advances in Irish medicine. It is difficult to reconcile that record with his portrayal of the sector.<\/p>\n

The suggestion that voluntary hospitals had to be \u201cdragged kicking and screaming\u201d into the HSE\u2019s Integrated Financial Management System is simply not correct. Hospitals <\/a>have engaged with the process throughout, while raising legitimate governance concerns. The fact that only two hospitals have implemented the system reflects the HSE\u2019s own phased roll-out and pilot approach, not resistance from the sector.<\/p>\n

Likewise, describing voluntary hospital governance <\/a>as rooted in \u201c1930s Catholic corporatism\u201d confuses the historical origins of some with the modern reality of all. Today, each is governed by an independent board <\/a>operating under contemporary governance standards and extensive public oversight. They also publish detailed annual reports and audited financial statements. HSE-run hospitals do not.<\/p>\n

The article\u2019s classist characterisation of board members was particularly unkind and unnecessary. These individuals serve because they bring expertise in healthcare, finance, law and governance, not because they belong to some imagined social class.<\/p>\n

The questions being asked of the Rotunda are entirely fair. However, serious failures in HSE hospitals <\/a>are rarely treated as an argument against State management itself. Voluntary hospitals should be judged by the same standard. \u2013 Yours, etc,<\/p>\n

MO FLYNN,<\/p>\n

Chief Executive<\/p>\n

Irish Voluntary Healthcare Association,<\/p>\n

Dublin 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir, \u2013 John McManus is right that institutions receiving substantial public funding must be accountable. However, his characterisation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,3267,61,60,2262,84498],"class_list":["post-504182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-hospitals","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-medicines","tag-the-irish-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}