asked the Minister for Health the approximate capital cost of providing (a) a county hospital bed and (b) a regional hospital bed for surgical patients, based on the cost of most recent beds provided for such purpose.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Treatment of Surgical Cases.
8.
No new county or regional hospitals have been completed since the 1950's. Separate cost-ings are not available for surgical beds as distinct from other types of beds. The average over-all cost per bed of a 108-bed county hospital completed in 1959 was £4,200 approximately while the average over-all cost per bed of a 572-bed regional hospital completed in 1957 was about £4,350 approximately.
I would suggest to the Deputy, however, that there are many factors operating to render quite invalid the use for comparison purposes of data relating to different types of hospitals erected on different sites with quite appreciable differences in numbers of beds, ancillary facilities, et cetera.
The throughput of patients in a large surgical hospital equipped with modern laboratory services, up-to-date out-patient diagnostic services may result in the capital invested being more remunerative in terms of number of patients treated. On the other hand, in the case of patients requiring specialist treatment the capital cost per patient treated may be higher.