A DEBT collection agency is to be employed to collect more than £3 million owed by former patients to the Southern Health Board. The country's second largest health board had an annual budget from the Department of Health last year of £224 million and owed almost £9 million to banks in overdraft and loans.
Most of the patient debt has arisen from patients having hospital without paying their bills. Mr Vivion O'Callaghan, a board member and councillor, said in many instances patients left before staff had a chance to collect money from them. Some patients failed to return for out patient treatment after their time in hospital, to avoid being approached to settle their account.
It is a problem and we must do something about it. But we will give people a chance to pay off what they owe by making easy terms available to them," he said. The board's 1996 financial statement was presented to the members for their approval, for the first time, at their monthly meeting as part of the board's policy of transparency.