Health budget to include private funds

The State's capital budget for the health service next year will include for the first time a provision for investment by the private sector.

Under current plans, the 2007 health service capital budget will contain an estimated €50 million generated from public/private partnership (PPP) arrangements.

The overall health service capital budget is expected to increase next year from €579 million to €630 million.

The vast bulk of this increase will come as a result of the provision of €50 million from a public/private partnership initiative.

The State's investment in the health service capital programme is expected to increase by only €1 million to €580 million next year, according to Department of Health figures.

The level of private investment in the health service capital programme is scheduled to increase significantly in the years ahead.

About €70 million is expected to be generated from public/private partnerships in 2008, with this figure rising to €90 million in 2009 and €95 million in 2010.

One of the main areas to be funded through the planned public/private partnership arrangements is the development of a new network of radiotherapy facilities which are expected to cost nearly €500 million.

Under a plan announced last year by Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney, four large radiotherapy centres in Dublin, Cork and Galway as well as two integrated satellite facilities in Limerick and Waterford are to be established between 2008 and 2011.

This project will also see the closure of the existing radiotherapy centre at St Luke's Hospital in Dublin and the transfer of services to a new site on the campus of St James's Hospital. A large radiotherapy facility for north Dublin will also be built at Beaumont Hospital.

The PPP programme for radiotherapy is being designed by the National Development Finance Agency, which has carried out an examination in recent months of such facilities in the US and the UK.

An internal Department of Health report drawn up earlier this year suggested that the development of the radiotherapy network would cost about €480 million, with the majority of this money being generated from PPP arrangements over the period from 2008 to 2011.

The report said the cost of running the new facilities would be approximately €72 million per year.

It also noted that the development of the two satellite radiotherapy units at Limerick and Waterford would be "conditional on their conformity to certain quality assurance arrangements".