Anger over £3m health trust travel bill

A trade union has it out after it was revealed the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust spent over £3m on travel and accommodation for its patients.

The trust, one of the biggest in Northern Ireland, spent £3,001,049 since 2008 on flights taxis and hotels.

Patients were flown to different parts of the UK and Ireland for non-emergency operations in a bid to cut waiting times or because procedures could not be carried out in Northern Ireland, according to health officials.

The transport costs emerged following a Freedom of Information request.

It revealed more than £2.9m was used to pay for patient and client taxis, since 2009. However, the trust could not clarify whether they were for fares within or outside Northern Ireland.

Between September 2011 and July this year the Belfast Trust spent £50,076 flying patients and their escorts to cities like London, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow.

For the most part budget airlines such as Easyjet, Ryanair and Flybe were used but there were also Aer Lingus flights to Bucharest and Budapest which cost the public purse over £5,000.

Another £57,000 was spent putting patients and their escorts up in hotels like the four-star Radisson Blu Edwardian, the Novotel, Paddington and the Edgewarebury in London.

Elsewhere in the UK patients were accommodated in Premier Inns, Holiday Inns and Travelodges.

And, in Northern Ireland, patients have been given rooms at Jurys Inn and the Ramada Encore in Belfast as well as the Fir Trees Hotel in Strabane.

In its FoI response the Trust said: “Patients are sent for treatment outside the trust where waiting times in the trust exceed the target times set by the health minister and where the trust does not currently have the capacity to treat volumes of patients referred.

“In many cases, independent providers in Northern Ireland can and do perform the work.

“However, in line with procurement regulations, UK providers provide capacity if this is required.

“In some cases, for example cardiac surgery and scoliosis surgery, no Northern Ireland providers are available and the work will be carried out in the Republic of Ireland or England/Scotland.”

A health service trade union has claimed the money could have been better invested in front line staff and improved services.

Joe McCusker, regional organiser with Unison, said: “We are shocked and alarmed that so much money is being spent.

“There needs to be an examination into whether or not these costs are viable and justified.

“Why can the money not be invested in consultants and proper resources here in Northern Ireland for the people who need it?”