Scots hospital blasted after spending £48,000 on taxis to deliver paperwork

Scotland’s flagship hospital has spent tens of thousands on taxis to deliver medicine and ­paperwork to patients.

Insiders say when someone is discharged from the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, staff often fail to have prescriptions and ­paperwork ready before transport arrives to take them home.

They are sent home by ambulance then the paperwork or medication follows them a short time later by taxi.

An ambulance insider was so annoyed by what he sees as “a complete waste of money” he put in a freedom of information request to find out the scale of the problem.

He said: “The hospital wards routinely send medications and paperwork out by taxi after a patient has left the ward – I wish to establish how much money has been spent on this.”

The FOI revealed there has been a steady increase in the number of prescriptions sent out by ambulance since 2021.

The total bill from 2020 to May this year for delivering ­paperwork to patients by the same method is £5139.10, which brings the combined taxi bill to £48,373.87.

Another source said: “Sometimes patients are waiting in patient transport vehicles outside the hospital for ages while the ambulance staff try to find a wheelchair.

“One driver was told there aren’t enough of them but if the hospital spent less on taxiing out items like paperwork and medicine there would be enough to buy essential equipment.

“It would surely be cheaper to post paperwork rather than have it delivered by taxi.”

Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: “This is the kind of wasteful thing the SNP have presided over in the last 17 years.”

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “The transport of items mentioned are in exceptional circumstances and are relative to the volume of discharges across GGC.”

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