[The costs of operating psychiatric hospitals of the Ministry of Health in the Federal District].

The hospitals of the Ministry of Health in Mexico City, particularly psychiatric hospitals, have been confronting operational problems due to a scarce budget and lack of informational on their operation and costs. The present study intends to begin to solve some of those problems through an initial diagnosis. A form was designed for data harvesting, which enables to sort costs by class (direct and indirect). This information was projected in a worksheet and analyzed by service, day-bed and unity as a whole. The results show an inequitable distribution of the budget among hospitals.