Medical files sent on €425 taxi trip

THE state’s health services watchdog has been using taxis to send documents and letters from Cork to Dublin at a cost of €425 per trip.

Figures show if the Health Information and Quality Authority used Irish Rail’s FasTrack service their delivery service would only cost €54.45 — including VAT. And next-day delivery by Nightline only costs about €32.91, a saving to the taxpayer of €392.09.

HIQA paid a Dublin taxi driver €526.79 — €101.79 more than his Cork counterpart to drive from their Dublin offices to Cork, according to a reply to a Freedom of Information request published in the latest issue of the Irish Medical Times.

And the body, established in May 2007 as part of the government’s health reform programme, spent €150 last September to send documents from Cork to Limerick.

Last August a taxi was used on two occasions to travel from Cork to Dublin, at a total cost of €850.

HIQA spokesman Marty Whelan said the authority used taxis to secure the carriage of confidential documentation in relation to their investigations.

“These are exceptional circumstances but it would be important for us to ensure the security of that information and that it would be delivered hand to hand.

“You could not stick that kind of information in the post and hope it arrives at its destination.

“We looked at getting couriers to go from our offices to a particular country location and it was cheaper to use a taxi,” he said.