The rapidly growing UPMC private hospital chain has tapped Eamonn Fitzgerald, one of the most experienced executives in the sector, to lead and manage medical services at its Irish operations. UPMC, which stands for University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, is a $21bn healthcare provider that operates more than 40 hospitals around the world with more than 8,000 beds and 90,000 employees. It is best known here as the operator of the Whitfield Clinic in Waterford. The group entered the Irish private healthcare market in 2006 when it opened a cancer centre in Waterford. Growth here stalled in the aftermath of the financial crash a decade ago but has accelerated in the past two years.