from www.theregister.co.uk – Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust has incurred the wrath of the Sun by spunking £7,500 on a “special room” kitted out to help chaps deliver vital supplies of man oysters.

The trust’s fertility centre shared the cost of “computer equipment worth £4,625, flat screen TVs costing £2,225 – plus £500 of blue movies” with private outfit North West Fertility.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance slammed the expenditure as “astonishing”.

It thundered: “Most people would think all a fertility clinic needs these days is an internet connection, but clearly this one thinks giving a sample should be a five-star, hi-tech experience. This money could have been spent on treatment rather than on trying to improve on methods that have always worked just fine.”

In fact, the Taxpayers’ Alliance doesn’t realise it’s not even necessary to go to the expense of computer-driven stimulation, when good, old-fashioned paper will do the trick just as well.

The Sun notes that other fertility centres “provide a similar service by spending less than £100 a year on magazines to stimulate patients”.

The cost of stiffening donors to Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust is just a fiver a year. IVF Wales “relies on donations”, while Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust gets its jazz mags free from the publisher.

UK – from www.thesun.co.uk – Health chiefs blew £7,500 on a special room where patients can watch porn.

The suite boasts computer equipment worth £4,625, flat screen TVs costing £2,225 – plus £500 of blue movies.

It was built by Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust to help men produce sperm samples.

The Trust’s fertility centre is a joint venture with private company North West Fertility, which shared the cost of the suite.

Other fertility centres provide a similar service by spending less than £100 a year on magazines to stimulate patients. Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust spends £5 a year, IVF Wales relies on donations and Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust gets old mags direct from a publisher.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance branded the Liverpool costs “astonishing”. It said: “Most people would think all a fertility clinic needs these days is an internet connection, but clearly this one thinks giving a sample should be a five-star, hi-tech experience.

“This money could have been spent on treatment rather than on trying to improve on methods that have always worked just fine.”