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Millions go on patients' private taxi journeys

May 15 2011 by Tom Mullen, Sunday Sun

AMBULANCE bosses in the North are spending millions of pounds on private taxi firms to transport patients to and from hospital, the Sunday Sun can reveal.

In the last three years the North East Ambulance Service has spent nearly £3m on 15 different cab companies.

The service has been forced to use private hire taxis to cope with rising numbers of patient appointments and an increased demand on their in-house shuttle-buses.

But the alarming amounts of cash spent have peaked at almost £1.2m of taxpayers’ money throughout 2008-09 - with two businesses receiving more than £800,000 each.

Our data, uncovered following a Freedom of Information Act request, has sparked calls for hospital resources to be better co-ordinated.

Emma Boon, campaign director at the Tax Payers’ Alliance pressure group, said: “It’s promising that the ambulance service has managed to cut its taxi bill significantly since last year. But it is worrying that such huge sums are still being spent on cabs.

“Of course ambulances should not be tied up making journeys that could be undertaken by taxi, but better co-ordination of resources and planning could reduce this bill yet further.”

The data also specifies parts of the contractual agreements taxi companies enter into when they agree to provide their service to the trust.