[The average costs of an admission to the hospital]

The mean cost of the hospital admission has increased considerably in the last 12 years, to an amount of Dfl. 7,415,- in 1988. However, if the greying of the patient population is taken into account (the elderly on average stay long in hospital), together with the devaluation of the guilder, a clear rise of the mean costs per hospitalization is no longer demonstrable. On the contrary, there is firm evidence to support the view that the cost per hospitalization has actually been decreasing since 1982, the last year before the beginning of budgeting. In addition, a very large amount has been saved due to a considerable decrease of the number of admissions.