Profits at company behind Blackrock Clinic fall
However, newly-filed accounts for Blackrock Hospital Ltd — which covers the clinic and subsidiary companies — show an 8% rise in revenue, to €111.4m.
“There was a strong increase in in-patient and one-day care activity during the year following the creation of additional capacity, as part of the hospital’s expansion and refurbishment programme,” the company’s directors said in the accounts.
They added that “the finance benefit of this increase was offset by an increase in the hospital’s cost-base, due to growth in general and medical inflation not being matched by an increase in reimbursement rates from insurance companies, which has resulted in a decline in margins”.
The hospital employed 733 staff last year, with another 110 people employed indirectly. Established in 1984, the clinic — which is part owned by Larry Goodman — has generated consistently strong profits.
On a combined basis, profits amounted to €75m between 2010 and 2015. The firm, last year, declared a dividend of €5m, of which €2.9m was paid prior to year-end.
The directors said that, over the last eight years, Blackrock Clinic has invested €156m on medical equipment and facilities, including €122m on a major expansion-and-refurbishment programme.
The group’s accumulated profits were €69m at the end of December last, with shareholder funds totalling €90m. Its cash last year decreased from €4.18m to €791,881.
Recently, a judge warned the two “main protagonists” in a long High Court battle for control of the Blackrock Clinic that continuation of the “negative and destructive” litigation is neither in the interests of the hospital nor of the parties.
In 2014, Dr Joseph Sheehan, co-founder of the clinic, initiated a case against Breccia, whose co-directors are businessmen, Larry Goodman and Declan Sheeran, and others.
