By Lucy Ashton
A breakdown of the figures in a new financial report has revealed that the local share of the £45 million national total for hiring taxis is almost £8 million over six years — and the meter is still running.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has spent the remarkable sum on cabs to transport staff, blood, patient samples, documents and laundry between sites.
Scottish Labour have obtained figures revealing that health boards have spent a total of more than £45 million nationally on taxis during the period between 2018 and 2023/24.
Revealed in The Democrat on Monday, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has been spending increasing sums on taxi transport since 2018.
The figures so far show that £926,389.89 was spent in the 2023/24 financial year-to-date, while the figure for the previous period sits at £1,708,206.62, which is almost double that.
Almost £12k has been spent this year by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde taxi-ing case notes, with a further £6,463 spent on delivering letters and documents.
The highest spend so far this year, has been £262,759.58 on sending staff by taxi between sites, while £122.575 has gone on sending patient samples.
Specialist labs at the Vale of Leven Hospital were downgraded in 2013 and services transferred to Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital, meaning patient samples taken outwith hours have been sent there since.
It was revealed in 2013 that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde had spent £1.21 million on taxis in the previous financial year.
The latest figures have been revealed via the painstaking, time-consuming process of a Freedom of Information request.
Dame Jackie Baillie, Dumbarton constituency MSP and Scottish Labour’s Health Spokesperson, said: “With Scotland’s NHS under severe pressure thanks to savage SNP cuts, eyebrows will rightly be raised over the amount of money being spent on taxi services.
“While taxi journeys will be necessary in some circumstances, and patient safety should always be paramount, we cannot allow the costly use of private transportation to paper over the cracks of SNP under-investment and mismanagement.
“NHS services are under increasing strain and the failure of the SNP to address the workforce challenges, especially in rural areas, means that the cost of transporting patients will keep increasing.”