Taxis as Ambulances

Owner of Allied Vehicles and Cab Direct, Gerry Facenna is campaigning for a £1 million scheme to use taxis as ambulances in a bid to cut high death rates among Scottish heart-attack victims. Gerry Facenna wants to equip 1000 Scottish cabs serving the Glasgow and Edinburgh areas with defibrillators.

Glasgow is home to the factory which produces the E7 taxis, amongst many other vehicles.  Gerry has reportedly approached Health Secretary Alex Neil and a meeting has been organised with the Scottish Ambulance Service. He said: “I believe we can save thousands of lives with this initiative. I got a real warm reception from Alex Neil on it. Scottish Ambulance seemed pretty excited about it all. They’ve just got to put a whole proposal together because it’s going to cost around £1m to fund these defibrillators.

We’re prepared to put the Cardio Cabs name in the participating taxis and help them get the whole thing off the ground, and tie the taxi companies up with the Scottish Ambulance Service and the Scottish Government.” Last year, a family friend, Craig Hodgkinson, 24, died of heart problems while playing rugby. Gerry Facenna consequently bought six defibrillators to install in his manufacturing facility where around 400 people work.