Councillor was shocked to learn claims of medical records being transported in taxis were true

Cllr Bree was informed that the healthcare records are transferred from the Medical Records Department to clinics held in the Diabetic unit via taxi service.

The Orthopaedic and Neurology clinics are held in SUH and the healthcare records are transferred from the Medical Records Department to the Outpatients department by SUH porter.

Reacting to the confirmation, Cllr Bree asked how much the taxi service was costing. A commitment was given to come back to him with specific costs for using taxis. He was told how on different sites they had to have arrangements for the transfer of files from different buildings because of weather and distance.

Cllr Bree revealed how he had initially dismissed the claim that taxis were being used: “I submitted this question because I was told by a constituent that the hospital management at Sligo University Hospital were using taxis to transfer the files from the records department to the hospital clinic.

“I have to admit I thought the story was far-fetched, but I decided to submit this question and I now discover what I was told by my constituent is in fact true.

“I find it extraordinary to find that the hospital is using taxis to transfer medical files.

“We are told that the approximate number of files transported to the diabetes clinic is 4,500 per annum which would be about 90 files transferred per week. I would also suspect they would have to be returned to the records department.

“Can anyone tell me are taxis used to transfer medical files to any other clinics in the hospital, do we have any idea of the annual cost of taxis for this?”