Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 18 Feb 1998

Vol. 487 No. 4

Written Answers. - Health Board Spending.

Tony Killeen

Ceist:

153 Mr. Killeen asked the Minister for Health and Children the average per capita spending in each of the eight health board regions in each year since 1990. [4393/98]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Cowen)

The information the Deputy requested is as follows:

Average Non-Capital Expenditureper capita spending in each health board area

Health Board	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
	IR£	IR£	IR£	IR£	IR£	IR£	IR£	IR£	IR£
Eastern	416	453	470	605	649	702	716	777	903
Midland	382	406	438	462	494	522	541	587	684
Mid-Western	329	349	431	450	481	509	521	558	653
North-Eastern	285	301	407	409	443	477	489	534	625
North-Western	468	501	563	581	617	646	659	708	819
South-Eastern	369	393	439	448	489	522	525	566	654
Southern	333	350	435	478	513	542	546	587	680
Western	434	462	540	580	618	649	660	709	816

These figures include the per head of population in health board voluntary hospitals and mental handicap homes. It should be noted that the expenditure per head of population is an arithmetic average and should be treated with caution. It is an unweighted average and does not take into consideration a number of demographic and geographical factors. Cross-regional comparisons of health expenditure are notoriously difficult.

Based on national policy, people from various areas avail of regional specialities outside their area which would not be reflected in the average for their board. The same applies to patient traffic flows where for historical, clinical or other reasons, patients may travel to other centres for treatment. These movements can be quite significant.

The apparent differences in the cost of health care in each region is also influenced by other factors such as access to higher specialities outside the area, density of population and the present development of the services.

The 1995 and 1996 figures reflect the fact that the responsibility for funding the disabled persons' maintenance allowance was transferred to the then Department of Social Welfare in August 1995.