NHS staff poured a staggering £500 million down the drain last year

[Ulquiorra]

NHS staff frittered away £500million last year through flagrant waste.

Money which could be spent on improving care was blown due to blunders, compo payouts and futile prescriptions, a Sun on Sunday investigation reveals. Thousands of pounds was paid to patients who lost items including dentures.

And some hospital chiefs blew funds on slap-up meals for themselves. They included a £1,000 gathering at a swish private members’ club by bosses at London’s Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust. It feeds patients for less than £10 a head each day.

Drugs worth £215,000 had to be chucked at one hospital after a storage fridge broke down. Another trust wrote off £651,000 owed by private patients.

NHS chiefs are now curbing prescriptions for remedies which are cheaper over the counter.

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But there is still concern about the number of antibiotics dished out. And £290million is lost by needless visits to A&E.

PM Theresa May plans to pump an extra £20billion into the NHS to mark its 70th birthday.

Ian Dalton, boss of NHS Improvement, said: “We will work with NHS trusts to help them make the most of every pound the Government has committed to giving over the next five years.”