Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 261: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her views on whether the proposed hospitals co-location initiative is the most cost-executive way of providing 1000 extra public hospital beds; the cost of the co-location initiative to the Exchequer; the cost of providing 1000 new public beds by traditional means; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13030/07]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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I am convinced that the co-location initiative is the most cost effective way of providing an additional 1,000 public beds for public patients in public hospitals including in the Adelaide and Meath Hospital incorporating the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght.

There will be no capital cost to the Exchequer. The State already funds the nursing and support staff employed to provide acute hospital services in these beds. The State will have to replace the income which the public hospitals have been receiving in respect of the private and semi private beds whose activity will transfer across to the new co-located hospitals. These private and semi private beds are currently being subsidised, for private patients, by the state. Investors in the new co-located hospitals, like investors in all new private hospitals, may be eligible for capital allowances over a 7 years period in accordance with the provisions of the Finance Acts.

There will be a rigorous value for money assessment of any proposal and this will take account of the value of the public site and the cost of any tax expenditure. Any transaction will be on a commercial basis and will fully protect the public interest. In addition, there will be full adherence to public procurement law and best practice.

The capital cost per bed for acute public hospitals differs depending on the scope of medical services provided and the consequential functional content of the hospital facility. Direct comparison, on a cost per bed basis, with private sector hospitals could be misleading without detailed information on the services being provided, functional content and floor areas of facilities.

Public acute hospitals have departments not normally provided in private facilities (A&E, Post Mortem, Teaching,) which will increase the cost per bed. The estimated average capital cost for an acute hospital bed in a major acute teaching hospital is €625,000. However, this figure does not include the cost of increasing numbers of single room accommodation being provided in public hospitals. The costs do not include the cost of land acquisition, future inflation financing costs, or cost of underground/overground car parking facilities.

The average revenue cost of an inpatient bed in a major acute teaching hospital in 2005 (the most recent year for which information is available) was approximately €300,000 per annum. This includes acute inpatient costs and inpatient activity only and excludes day cases, outpatients, longstay and psychiatric patients. The cost also excludes capital and depreciation costs.