ANGLO IRISH Bank has appointed KPMG as share receivers to the entity that operates the Whitfield Clinic private hospital in Waterford City.
Anglo is owed €85 million by Euro Care International Ltd, an entity led by dentist Jim Madden and his family.
Euro Care is in default on its debts; Anglo yesterday appointed Kieran Wallace and Barry Donohue of KPMG as joint share receivers. Anglo had a legal charge over the shares in the company.
The joint receivers said their appointment would not affect patient care, employment, trade creditors or day-to-day operations at the hospital.
In addition, hospital operator UPMC stated that their appointment did not affect the adjacent Whitfield Cancer Centre, which was a separate legal entity.
The cancer unit is independently operated by UPMC and jointly owned with Euro Care.
Whitfield, which employs 160 staff, was opened by Dr Madden in 2006. It has 40 inpatient beds and 24 outpatient or day-surgery beds. It serves patients in the southeast.
In 2006, Mr Madden predicted that the hospital would break even by year three. Its latest accounts, however, show that it made a loss of €1.75 million in the 12 months to the end of June 2010, having posted a loss of €5.44 million in the previous year.
It had accumulated losses of €10.76 million by June 2010.
The clinic was sold to tax investors in 2008 and the tax breaks were due to expire in 2017.
The receivers appointed new non-executive directors – Maura McGrath, Pat McCann and Séamus Taaffe – to the board of Euro Care Healthcare Limited, which operates the hospital.
Philomena Shovlin has taken over as interim chief executive. She formerly worked as chief executive of St Vincent’s Private Hospital.
