Dublin hospital group records €7.8m deficit as staff costs rise

The St Vincent's Healthcare Group (SVHG), which runs two publicly funded and one private hospital in Dublin, recorded a €7.8 million pretax deficit last year as staff-related costs jumped to €246 million.

The group, which has been engaged in a series of rows with the Health Service Executive (HSE) in recent years on issues such as executive pay, governance and consultants’ private-practice rights, operates St Vincent’s University Hospital in Elm Park, St Michael’s Hospital in Dún Laoghaire and St Vincent’s Private Hospital.

According to newly filed accounts for the group, which receives more than €200 million in HSE funding per year, remuneration for key management personnel totalled €2.6 million in 2015, compared with €2.4 million a year earlier.

Shareholders

The group, whose shareholders are the Religious Sisters of Charity, said earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) were €13.2 million in 2015, compared with €9.9 million the previous year with net cash inflow from operating activities totalling €12.9 million, versus €11.9 million in 2014.

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The loss for the year, after providing for net depreciation of €13.3 million and net interest expense of €7.7 million, amounted to €7.8 million, as against a €7.6 million deficit in the prior year.

The latest accounts show income from continuing operations totalled €403 million last year, compared with €385.9 million in 2014.

A breakdown of turnover shows the group received €240 million in funding from the HSE in 2015, up from €232 million a year earlier. It also earned €141 million in patient income and €21.9 million in “other income”.

St Vincent’s said it was owed €25 million by the HSE at the end of last year.

The group’s public healthcare hospitals are funded primarily by the HSE under section 38 of the Health Act 2004.

Forensic auditors commissioned by the HSE to review financial arrangements within the group following a series of disagreements made no adverse findings, according to a report published earlier this year.

Staff numbers

The average number of people employed by St Vincent’s in 2015 was 3,744, up from 3,543 a year earlier. Management and administration staff increased from 577 to 742 with medical and dental staff rising to 443 from 424, and nursing personnel jumping from 1,471 to 1,515.

Total staff costs, including wages and salaries, rose to €246 million from €230 million.

Stocks, which include drugs and chemicals, declined slightly to €5.4 million, versus €5.7 million in 2014.

St Vincent’s Private Hospital paid €1.2 million in rent to the Religious Sisters of Charity last year, unchanged from the prior year. It also owed it €1.1 million in relation to the purchase of a leasehold amount.

One of the group's two subsidiaries, Pianora Ltd, was set up in 2000 to develop and let the ground-level and multi-storey car parks at the public hospital in Ballsbridge. The latest accounts show Pianora recorded a €325,174 loss last year, compared with a €426,665 deficit a year earlier.