Edward VII Memorial Hospital is getting more Naggressive when it comes to collecting.

"There are quite a few people who don't pay their bills. Every year we have to send out between $750,000 to a million dollars to the debt collection agencies, for bills we have not been able to collect,'' Hospitals Board Director of Finance Annarita Woolridge-Marion told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

"Recently, we've had to start filing more writs against these people. We have definitely become more aggressive in that regard. Health care costs are going up so much, we cannot afford to allow people to continue to avoid paying their bills.

"A lot of people are using the Emergency Department as a doctor's office, and the insurance companies will not pay for a treatment they deem to be non-emergency. People are then billed and don't understand it. And then we have a collection problem.

"We are also still seeing some people who don't have insurance, but who are not indigent. Sure, some of them are the self-employed, but it is still a problem.'' And the Board is expecting an improved performance for the fiscal year that ended March 31, 1997, when the figures are finalised this fall.

Its annual report, tabled in Parliament last Friday, is for the year to March 31, 1996. It showed the Island's two hospitals operated at a net loss of $387,580. The previous year saw a profit of more than $1.4 million.

Officials attributed the shortfall to the operations at St. Brendan's Hospital, which ended its year to March, 1996 some $960,000 in the red. A year earlier St. Brendan's had declared a loss of just $44,000.

Last year's loss at St. Brendan's came even after the management charge, assessed by King Edward VII Memorial Hospital against St. Brendan's was reduced to $460,000 from $639,587.

Ms Woolridge-Marion said: "That charge to St. Brendan's is for administration costings. The administration is shared by both institutions. We try to get a true costing for the St. Brendan's portion of services provided.

"In 1995, in addition to the management charge, there was the purchase of an information system which St. Brendan's didn't have the funds to pay for.

King Edward paid St. Brendan's portion and as they have funds available, they pay King Edward back.

"It was not done for the 1996 year, because St. Brendan's didn't have funds available. They had positions vacant that needed to be filled from the previous year. They had to be filled. But the budget they received did not reflect the added cost. That was a reason for the shortfall.'' One of the reasons the Board is more confident of the financial result this year is that the Government Budget has promised increased funding for St.

Brendan's.

Of the more than $16.4 million in 1996 operating revenues for St. Brendan's (1995: $16.2 million), nearly $15.5 million came directly from the public purse (1995: $15.2 million).

The February Government Budget estimated that would rise to $16.2 million in the year to March 31, 1997 and by a further million dollars for the current fiscal year.

The Government's hospitals grant is rising fast.

Government spent more than $48.7 million on hospitals in 1996, an estimated $52.7 million in 1997, and believe they will spend $56.2 million in the current fiscal year to March, 1998. That does not include money for capital works.