The North Eastern Health Board will spend around €150,000 per patient to send a small group of children to the UK for treatment for an eating disorder.
The health board said last night that the treatment was highly specialised and not available in Ireland. The board is paying for the treatment from its general State allocation. It said there was a handful of children involved.
The board is also set to spend around €350,000 this year on highly expensive drug therapy for a patient with a genetic disorder.
Details of the high cost of some of the treatments being provided were contained in an internal financial memo sent around six weeks ago by chief executive Mr Paul Robinson to the Department of Health.
In the financial analysis, seen by The Irish Times, Mr Robinson said the "ongoing treatment of a number of children suffering from anorexia nervosa together with the treatment of a patient who suffers from [a specific named disease] has cost almost €400,000 up to the end of May 2004. No funding has been made available in 2004 to cover these treatments."
Health board sources said the purpose of the comments in the financial analysis was to highlight to the Department the high cost of providing some forms of treatment. The board has not sought additional funding from the Department to cover these costs.
Mr Robinson told the Department the board had a €5.6 million shortfall for the first five months of the year.
It forecast that, based on current trends, it could face an operational deficit of €14 million by the end of the year. However, this is likely to be offset to some extent by its contingency fund.
Mr Robinson told the Department that the main factors contributing to the financial overrun were "the high ratio of emergency activity in the acute sector, together with core underfunding of the service which has been evident for several years.
"Direct patient costs have increased by 14 per cent since 2003 in the acute hospitals, illustrating the ongoing effects of the increased activity and inflationary elements."
He also said the number of asylum-seekers accommodated in Mosney Refugee Centre - based in the board's area - had risen sharply since the beginning of the year.
A number of these had specific healthcare requirements.
"This has necessitated additional staff and expenditure and all indications are that this increased level will continue," he said.
