Profits jump by 80% at Bon Secours

PROFITS at the country’s largest private healthcare company, Bon Secours Health System Ltd, rose by 80% to €9.7 million in 2010 up from €5.4m in 2009, according to information released by the group last night.

Total revenue generated at the not-for-profit organisation fell slightly from €218.9m to €219.7m in 2010, but the group managed to push its profits ahead despite this fall. The Bon Secours confirmed construction on an €80m expansion plan for its Cork hospital will begin in January, with an expansion of facilities at Tralee hospital at the planning stage.

The company released profit and turnover figures for 2010 but detailed accounts are not yet available at the Companies Registration Office. The organisation, with headquarters at College Rd, Cork, operates Bon Secours hospitals in Cork, Dublin, Galway and Tralee providing over 800 private beds.

Bon Secours said that as a not-for-profit organisation, it re-invests any surplus back into the company, and in 2010 €14m was invested in the ongoing development of hospital facilities.

It also disclosed it contributed €406,000 to charitable causes in 2010 as part of its commitment to the communities where it operates.

Bon Secours Health System chief executive Pat Lyons described 2010 as a challenging year for the company.

“It is a tribute to all our staff across our network of hospitals that in a difficult economic environment with increased capacity and competition in the private healthcare sector and falling reimbursement rates from the private health insurers, Bon Secours Health System was able to record a positive financial position.

“Our ongoing capital equipment and hospital development requirements need to be financed. To support this, Bon Secours Health System needs to be continually vigilant in tightly managing our cost base.

“Given the level of competition and pressure on prices from health insurers with further price cuts applied in 2011, it is vital that margins are preserved at current levels in order to adequately reinvest in the business and service debt obligations going forward.

“The solid performance in 2010 results mainly from a higher than anticipated volume of patient admissions and from the gain achieved from implementing effective processes in managing working capital.”

In the past eight years, Bon Secours Health System has invested over €100m in technology and infrastructure across its network of hospitals, with a €14m expansion of bedroom and support facilities in the Galway hospital, including the provision of 51 additional in-patient beds, being officially opened by Taoiseach Enda Kenny this year.

Bon Secours Health System is the largest independent private healthcare provider in Ireland, with a staff of more than 2,500 treating 90,000 patients annually.