Exactly one euro in 10 needed to run the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar is earned from its private patients, it was revealed this week (February 19 ).
This came to light at this week’s meeting of the Dublin-Mid Leinster regional health forum in reply to a question from Cllr Mick Dollard.
The 2012 budget for the hospital was €58 million, down from €65 million in 2009, the assistant national director James Conway told him, and this took care of a total throughput of patients of 76,500.
Coincidentally, the income earned over the same period from private, in-patient maintenance charges was €5.8 million.
However, at going to press, the HSE were unable to provide The Advertiser with the total number of private patients treated at the hospital over the same period, although it is suspected to be below 10 per cent.
Elsewhere in the town, work on the refurbishment of the acute psychiatric unit on the St Loman’s campus “continues to be progressed”, and the new, 50-bed unit is expected to be opened sometime in the second quarter of this year.
“At that stage, the remaining patients from the old building wll move over to the refurbished unit,” confirmed Joe Ruane, the area manager for the HSE in the Midlands.
The total budget for mental health services in Longford/Westmeath is just under €21.1 million, of which €13.13 million (62 per cent ) is allocated to the Delvin Road campus.
