One quarter of all emergency department bills are unpaid

Figures released show that a quarter of emergency department hospital bills are unpaid.

A Fine Gael Senator is expressing concerns over outstanding treatment fees, amounting to more than €2m for the year 2013.

€9.2m in charges were due the HSE for emergency department treatment in 2013, but only €7m was collected.

But this €7m figure also includes late payments from 2012, which could mean that the figure for outstanding payments from 2013 is even higher.

Fine Gael's Seanad spokesperson on Health, Colm Burke, said he has requested the most recent figures for 2014 from the HSE.

"This is the outstanding amount since 2013 - I have not seen the 2014 figures," he said.

"€2.25 million is quite a lot of money - it would pay for additional nursing home beds, it would pay for a number of additional facilities within hospitals if it was available."

"I think the HSE need to find out why is there such a low payment level … [it] represents 25% of all charges. One quarter of charges are not being collected."