MCUI Medical Team "disappointed" by Enniskillen Club's 'rising medical costs' claim

A statement issued by Enniskillen and District Motorcycle Club on Friday morning blamed a number of issues for the decision not to hold the Irish road race next year, including “the excessive cost and logistics of hiring safety equipment such as the bales from other clubs, rising medical costs etc; along with a trend of spectators choosing not to contribute by buying programmes.”

On Friday evening, the MCUI (UC) Medical Team said it felt the claim “must be specifically challenged”.

A statement said: “As the MCUI(UC) Medical Team, we are disappointed to read that the club has cited ‘rising medical costs’ as one of the factors leading to cancellation of next year’s event.

“We feel that we must specifically challenge this, given that the MCUI Medical Team has not increased the expenses we charge to any of the road race events for many years in recognition of the difficult financial environment in which many clubs operate, and moreover have never raised our fees to the Enniskillen & District Club for any of their events.

“While the costs charged by other providers may indeed be increasing, we would be grateful if the club would acknowledge that the medical team costs play no part in their decision by publishing a retraction or clarification of the phrase ‘rising medical costs’.”

In response, a representative of the Enniskillen Club issued a further update on Facebook on Friday night, which said the claim was not aimed at the MCUI Medical Team.

It read: “To all in MCUI Medical Team, I'm sorry to hear that you feel the mentioned increase in medical costs in our statement was aimed at you. This was not the intention and I hope you will accept our apology as it certainly was not intended that way.

“We all appreciate the wonderful job your team does, and we saw that first hand this year.. other medical services we require have increased their costs significantly, resulting in an increase in our overall medical costs as mentioned in the statement.

“At your request, I will update this immediately as no bad feeling is intended. Thanks again for all your support over the past couple of years.”

The MCUI Medical Team said it “appreciated the response” and said it was sorry to learn that the race had been called off next year.