Taxi for the Scottish Ambulance Service

Baillie slams 'inappopriate' use of cabs to ferry sick patients to A&E

- VIVIENNE AITKEN

TAXIS are being used "inappropriately" to ferry patients to accident and emergency departments, it has been claimed.

Worried cabbies say they are regularly booked by the underpressure Scottish Ambulance Service to pick up the slack.

One driver, based in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, said: "There are so many ambulances queued up outside hospitals that they need to call us in to help out."

Last night, Labour's health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie voiced her concerns after hearing drivers were used to take ill patients to A&E, including one who had a sezure.

She said: "It is inappropriate for taxi drivers who are not medically qualified to transport patients who clearly are emergency cases.

"It is not fair on the taxi driver or the patients and what we are hearing seems to suggest there are cases where patient outcomes could be compromised.

"It is essential that emergency ambulances are dispatched appropriately and more use is made of patient transport services rather than taxis.