Cancer treatment trip €1,200 per run

AMBULANCES costing €1,200 per run are used to transport cancer patients in the north-west to Dublin for radiotherapy in the absence of nearby facilities.

In 2003, the former North Western Health Board (NWHB) spent €148,064 - including €28,000 on flights - to ferry patients in need of radiotherapy to St Luke’s Hospital in Dublin.

According to figures supplied by the NWHB to the National Radiation Oncology Co-ordinating Group in August of last year, a total of €72,000 was spent on ambulance transport and €6,750 on minibus transport (€75 per patient) in 2003. Another €41,314 was spent on transporting patients on the “oncology bus”, which the Friends of Letterkenny Hospital helped fund.