Almost €2.5m spent on taxi services in three years by Letterkenny University Hospital

Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH) has incurred costs of just under €2.5m on taxi services for patients over a period of three years.
From 2015 to 2017, the total costs of costs incurred by LUH is €2467,000.
The taxi service is predominantly due to the transport cost of patients availing of renal dialysis services at the Letterkenny-based hospital. Patients who require this service are offered transport free of charge to and from renal units on a national basis.
Patients are required to attend this service three times per week. Due to the high demand the Health Service Executive (HSE) has, at times, had to avail of additional slots in either Altnagelvin hospital in Derry or Omagh Hospital. In these cases, transport also has to be provided.
LUH uses approximately 11 private taxi firms to provide these services.

Year by year breakdown
In 2015, €821k was spent on taxis, of which €675k refers to the transport cost of renal patients. In 2017, the cost of taxi services increased to €829k, of which €687k refers to the cost of renal patients. In 2017, the cost of taxis to the hospital was €817K, of which €674k refers to renal patients.

The information was released on foot of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.