Dumfries and Galloway’s hard-pressed health board has spent almost £2m on taxi services in the past six years.

Statistics obtained by Scottish Labour through an FOI have shown that between 2018 and the start of this year, some £1,846,315.00 was spent by NHS Dumfries and Galloway on taxis for a variety of reasons.

While the need for taxi services is greater in rural communities such as Dumfries and Galloway, the figure was high almost across all Scottish health boards.

South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth said: “With our region’s NHS under severe pressure thanks to savage cuts, eyebrows will rightly be raised over the amount of money being spent on taxi services.

“While taxi journeys will be necessary in some circumstances, and patient safety should always be paramount, we cannot allow the costly use of private transportation to paper over the cracks of under-investment and mismanagement.

“NHS services are under increasing strain and the failure of the Scottish Government to address the workforce challenges, especially in rural areas, means that the cost of transporting patients will keep increasing.

“While the SNP continually fail our NHS, Scottish Labour will always put the NHS and those it serves first.”