Vatican concedes past problems at ‘pope’s hospital’

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican secretary of state acknowledged Tuesday that there were problems at “the pope’s hospital” for children in the past, but said the new administration is making a “serious effort to resolve them.”

Cardinal Pietro Parolin said some of the problems identified by current and former Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital staff in 2014 were “truly unfounded.” But for problems that were verified, “there was an attempt, and there is currently an attempt and serious effort to resolve them,” he said.

Parolin was responding to an Associated Press investigation that found that under its previous 2008-15 administration, the mission of the children’s hospital had shifted to focus more on profits than on its young patients.

A Vatican-commissioned report reached that conclusion in 2014 after a three-month investigation into staff complaints that corners were being cut, safety protocols ignored and children put at risk because of pressure to produce.

The report, authored by an Italian cardiologist who interviewed dozens of current and former employees, cited breaches of accepted medical protocols. The problems included overcrowding, the reuse of disposable equipment, early awakening from surgery, unsupervised experimental procedures and facilities that didn’t meet medical standards.

But a second, three-day Vatican probe in January 2015 found the hospital was in many ways “best in class.” That team, headed by an American health care expert, said it had “disproved” the findings of the first review and said the Vatican should be proud of its hospital.

Pesident Mariella Enoc said she found it impossible to believe such problems occurred, but stated she wasn’t at the hospital at the time. She said The Associated Press did its job and that she respected its work.

“I can say that the climate today is more serene, and I urge everyone when there is a problem … that we talk and talk and not keep it inside and then have it explode,” she said. “We can’t always say ‘yes,’ unfortunately, but we can communicate.”

Parolin and Enoc made their comments Tuesday after Bambino Gesu issued its annual report at the Vatican. The hospital boasted in the report of being the only pediatric hospital in Europe that can perform all types of transplants. It said it performed 339 procedures, most of them bone marrow transplants, in 2016.

The hospital reported it had reduced the number of “inappropriate” hospital stays, from 26 percent in 2012 to 7 percent last year, by increasing the number of outpatient surgeries that were less stressful for children and cheaper for both the hospital and Italy’s national health system.

At the presentation, Italy’s health minister, Beatrice Lorenzin, praised Bambino Gesu as a leading pediatric research center.

“I have met your little patients, some of whom come from around the world, who are treated with great love and great competence,” she said.

The Associated Press corroborated many of the first report’s findings through interviews with more than a dozen current and former Bambino Gesu employees, as well as patients, their families and health officials. The Associated Press reviewed medical records, civil court rulings, hospital and Vatican emails, and five years of union complaints.

In a statement, the hospital called The Associated Press report a “hoax” that “contained false, dated and gravely defamatory accusations that had been denied” by the second investigation. It threatened legal action.

Both the Vatican and Bambino Gesu pointed to the second report as evidence that all of the allegations — except one involving space constraints — were “unfounded.”