York Hospital withdraws offer to pay for Christmas cab fares

Healthcare staff in York who rely on public transport will have to cycle or walk to work on Christmas Day or shell out for a taxi after their trust withdrew a goodwill gesture. 

In previous years, York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust paid for taxis for some staff travelling to and from York Hospital for work on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year’s Day when there is no public transport in the city. 

But the trust has announced that it faced a decision this year over whether to offer this to all of its staff working on those dates in the interests of fairness.

It said this would cost an extra £5,000 to £10,000.

A spokesperson said it had ‘reluctantly’ chosen to no longer pay for taxis for any staff members. 

She added: ‘In our current financial situation, with a growing deficit, we cannot allocate scarce NHS funds to this.’

Unison regional head of health for Yorkshire and Humberside Tony Pearson said the cost for the trust is not large, and ‘our low paid members will suffer great hardship as a result’ of the decision.

He said: ‘We will formally request that the trust reverses this decision, which in our view is not justified.’

A trust spokesperson said the issue only applies to a ‘small number of staff’.

It paid for about twenty return journeys on each of the holiday days last year.