Readers like you keep news free for everyone.
More than 5,000 readers have already pitched in to keep free access to The Journal.
For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can help keep paywalls away.
Shutterstock/bikeriderlondon
File photo
# Hospitals
Ireland spends €20 billion per year on healthcare, here's where the money goes
There was a 10% increase in health expenditure between 2011 and 2016.
IRELAND’S CURRENT HEALTH expenditure was €20.3 billion in 2016, representing 7.4% of GDP.
In 2011 current health expenditure was €18.4 billion or 10.7% of GDP.
Overall there was a 10% increase in health expenditure in Ireland between 2011 and 2016, newly released figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.
The majority of health expenditure in 2016 (€14.6 billion or 72%) was financed by the government. The remainder was mainly funded by household out-of-pocket payments (13%) and health insurance (15%).
Just over one-third of health expenditure happened in hospitals in 2016, with a further 18% in long-term residential facilities such as nursing homes and residential disability services. Ambulatory healthcare providers, predominantly GPs and dentists, accounted for 20% of expenditure.
Retailers of medical goods (mainly pharmacies) accounted for a further €2.8 billion or 14% of all healthcare expenditure in 2016.
The majority of health expenditure related to curative and rehabilitative care (€11.1 billion) and nearly half of this was for inpatient care (€5 billion). The next largest category was long-term care which amounted to 22% of expenditure, again with inpatient services the largest component of this (€2.7 billion).
Pharmaceuticals and other medical non-durables made up the next largest category (13%). Administration of the healthcare system (public and private) amounted to €519 million in 2016, which was 3% of total current health expenditure.
Hospitals and long-term care
Services provided by hospitals accounted for over one-third of healthcare expenditure in Ireland in 2016 (€6.9 billion), 64% of this was on inpatient services (€4.5 billion).
Long-term residential facilities and ambulatory healthcare providers each accounted for approximately one-fifth of the total current healthcare expenditure. Long-term facilities, which include nursing homes and residential facilities for people with a disability, predominantly provided long-term care inpatient services (€2.6 billion).
Ambulatory healthcare providers accounted for 20% of healthcare expenditure in Ireland in 2016. These providers, which include GPs, dentists and other services such as home care providers and healthcare centres, mainly delivered outpatient services.
In 2016 €4.1 billion was spent on healthcare in these settings, with 69% of this spent on outpatient curative and rehabilitative care.
Expenditure on pharmaceuticals (€2.7 billion) accounted for 13% of healthcare expenditure, with the vast majority being provided by pharmacies.
Other sectors also provided healthcare services amounting to €1.2 billion in 2016. Two-thirds of this expenditure (€828 million) was for the provision of long-term healthcare services in the home by people in receipt of transfer payments such as the Carers’ Allowance and the Domiciliary Care Allowance.
