Published: Thursday, 25th June, 2009 9:00am

No more taxis for hospital nurses

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The transporting by taxi by the Western Trust of former Tyrone County nurses to the Erne Hospital will cease in less than a fortnight"s time.

A spokesman for the Trust said this week: 'It is anticipated that there will not be a need for transport provision, in relation to the transition, for nursing staff after July 6'.

'Transport was in place while redeployment was underway. The redeployment date for the last group of staff is July 6.

All staff have a responsibility for getting to a place of work and that would include redeployed staff,' the spokesman said.

It is understood that this transport for former TCH nursing staff was provided while staff were temporarily redeployed during the transition phase of the process. Transport was a temporary arrangement during that process.

The plan to cease transporting nurses was revealed as the Trust released figures showing it had incurred almost £14,000 for taxi and people carrier hire to transport nursing staff from the Tyrone County Hospital to the Erne and Altnagelvin Hospitals between February 27 to May 3, a timeframe of less than three months. The change took place after acute services were cut at the Omagh hospital and staff were redeployed.

'The Western Trust has now redeployed a number of staff and is working extremely hard with staff and their union representatives to redeploy the remaining staff within the timeframe identified.

'The Western Trust has established close communications with staff and their union representatives throughout the redeployment process and will continue these arrangements in place until all staff have been redeployed,' a spokesman said.

When asked about the numbers of staff travelling to the Erne, the spokesman said: 'The number of staff transported on a daily basis varies and is dependant on those on shift and those availing of the transport'.