While people across the UK are spending less on luxury items in these economically troubled times, the NHS has found a way to spend more. £400,000 more to be exact. The East Yorkshire NHS Trust have proposed buying a £400,000 yacht to promote an unconventional education program that will take unemployed teenagers out to sea to learn new skills and help them make better "lifestyle choices".
First of all, I was under the impression that the NHS was meant to provide medical treatment and medical advice. Secondly, if the goal of this program is to encourage youngsters to enroll in higher education and take themselves more seriously, I doubt that taking socially and professionally irresponsible teenagers on a free holiday on a yacht will promote better "lifestyle choices."
And the biggest problem is that it isn't a one-time payout; the yacht itself would need routine maintenance and the program would require hundreds of thousands of pounds to run. This is what the NHS thinks public funds should be spent on? Hard working families are being forced to tighten their belts and the NHS wants to buy a yacht?
They are throwing £400,000 of the tax payer's money right down the drain...overboard.