The first full year of operation at Mater Dei Hospital in 2008 cost €104.3 million, nearly €20 million more than the cost of running St Luke's Hospital during the previous year.
Ward admissions between the two hospitals increased by 9,000 to 84,337 in 2008, with a mean bed occupancy rate of 82 per cent, up from 76 per cent, according to the latest National Statistics Office publication released yesterday.
Surgical operations were up by 1,000 to 33,743 and the mean length of stay at Mater Dei went down to three days from 4.3 days at St Luke's.
Meanwhile, holders of the yellow card, which entitles patients with chronic illnesses to free medicine, increased in number by 1,522 to 46,405 in 2008 from 44,883 in 2007. On the other hand, the number of those who held the means-tested pink entitlement card decreased by 551 to 7,479.
The NSO publication on social protection shows that the government's total expenditure on benefits in 2008 amounted to €1,070.8 million, an increase of €239.2 million or 28.8 per cent over 2004. The 2008 figure made up 18.8 per cent of the gross domestic product.
The €227.5 million spent in 2008 on health care amounts to 21.2 per cent of the total expenditure on social protection for the year.
NSO statistician Clyde Caruana said that Malta spent more of its social protection budget on pensions than the EU average.
Speaking during the publication of a comparative survey, he said the most significant changes in expenditure on social protection between 2004 and 2008 were in spending on old age and widows' pensions.
Malta in 2008, when compared to 2004, paid €74.4 million more on the two-thirds pensions, close to €14 million more on retirement pension, and nearly €10 million more on widows' pension, while dishing out €1.1 million less on the invalidity pension.
The island paid slightly more than €3,000 per capita in social protection benefits, which is around half the EU average.
Between 2005 and 2007, growth in social protection expenditure was greater than the EU average with an increase of 12 per cent compared to eight per cent in the EU.
Mr Caruana said a set of schemes that increased substantially between 2004 and 2008 were those related to utilities. The revision of the water and electricity tariffs doubled social protection expenditure from €3.1 million in 2007 to €6.2 million in 2008.
The figures also revealed an increase of €7.6 million in expenses related to Malta's expenditure on third country nationals and refugees when compared to 2004. In 2008, €9.1 million was spent.