The Tax Payers’ Alliance has revealed that taxpayer-funded NHS budgets have been used to buy far more than just medical equipment: new evidence reveals that the Service’s ‘personal health budgets‘ were used to justify a smorgasbord of expensive goodies, with one NHS branch alone splashing an eye-watering £10,265 on luxury items. Blimey.

Though a total figure of all the spending is impossible to calculate (many costs have been withheld), Guido has devised a list of the most ridiculous expensed goods and the reasons why they were justified. Guido encourages co-conspirators to judge whether this is a healthy use of taxpayers’ cash:

• Holiday and Garden furniture worth £2,300 to “improve mental health and wellbeing”
• Hot tub worth £5,000 “to manage anxieties and behaviours”
• PS4 and games worth £300 for “improvement in mental health”
• Amazon Prime account worth £79 for “mental and emotional wellbeing”
• Weighing scales worth £499
• Pottery & Craft Classes worth £930 per annum for a “sense of achievement and social interaction” 
• Weekly cinema visits worth £15 for “an activity to leave the home, meet social and emotional needs”
• National Trust membership, Merlin Pass and a Chelsea FC season ticket

Guido hopes that Javid’s far-reaching review into NHS spending will stop the organisation splashing on this stuff.

James Roberts, political director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:

“Taxes on working people should not be going up to pay for health service hot tubs.”

Quite right…