Doctors run up £3m chauffeur service bill

NHS bosses argue that the drivers are needed to protect GPs from violent patients and to allow the doctors to make telephone calls and check patient records while they are on the move.

However, the transport service has come under fire from patients’ groups who have dismissed it as a “scandalous waste” of NHS funds.

“This is a shocking waste of money which should be going directly to patient care,” said Margaret Davidson, chief executive of the Scotland Patients’ Association.

“One has to ask whether health boards that spend £400,000 on chauffeur-driven cars are getting value for money. It is scandalous.”

Of the 15 health boards contacted by The Sunday Times last week, 11 admitted using chauffeur-driven cars to transport GPs on home visits. Orkney and Shetland do not provide drivers, while Dumfries & Galloway and Argyll & Clyde refused to comment.

NHS Tayside pays £400,000 a year for a pool of 25 drivers and leases seven £20,000 Nissan X-Trail sports utility vehicles at a further estimated annual cost of £28,000.

NHS Greater Glasgow hires a fleet of 12 Nissan Micras for £41,760 a year and employs a bank of drivers at an additional cost of £238,942.

NHS Highland, which already has a fleet of chauffeur-driven vehicles, plans to increase its expenditure to £385,000 a year, with £315,000 going on drivers’ salaries.

In Fife, £160,000 a year is being spent on chauffeur-driven Renault Megane Scenics and 4x4s, while Ayrshire & Arran keeps a pool of 23 full and part-time drivers on call, most of them retired policemen and security guards.

NHS Lothian pays drivers’ salaries of up to £14,000 a year at a total cost of about £112,000 and runs eight cars.

“This is a bizarre abuse of health service expenditure,” said Jim Devine, Scottish organiser of Unison, the health union.

“We have increased the budget for GPs in Scotland by more than 33% as part of their new contract and substantially reduced their working hours to the extent that they are earning around £1,000 a night for providing out-of-hours cover.

“One would have thought that they might be able to provide the drivers for themselves. This money would be better spent on employing more frontline nurses.”

David Davidson, the Tory health spokesman, also questioned the use of chauffeurs.

“The whole issue of out-of-hours GP cover has given rise to some extraordinary examples of how much individual doctors are going to earn and how much this service is going to cost,” he said.

“What has not yet become apparent is whether patients will get better services. That is the litmus test that has to be passed.”

Health boards, which now have an obligation to provide emergency medical cover between 6.30pm and 8am on weekdays and throughout the weekend, defended the cost.

Dr Marion Storrie, clinical director of the service in Lothian, said: “Drivers provide additional safety for doctors, who have been assaulted and had drugs and prescription pads stolen.

“They also build up a local knowledge of the areas in which they operate, leading to fast, reactive response time.

“The drivers act as an additional pair of hands if the doctor requires them — for example, when the patient needs rescuscitation.

“They also take details of incoming calls while a doctor is busy with a patient so that the doctor can concentrate without suffering interruptions.”

NHS Glasgow said: “Drivers are valuable and important members of the out-of-hours team. They support and assist the work of GPs and ensure that they are transported quickly and safely across the city.”