More unaccountable officialdom

The Nationalised Health Service has spent thousands of pounds on a booklet that tells nurses to put pot plants in patients' rooms to counter climate change.

We're told it's £8,000. I bet it's more. To start with, it was funded and put together by the NHS Confederation and the NHS Sustainable Development Unit and charitable organisation, the Faculty of Public Health. That alone raised the costs.

(The Faculty is the standard setting body for specialists in public health in the UK. What it is doing getting involved in this silliness is anyone's guess.)

The handbook recommends a number of ways to reduce the carbon footprint. For example more flexible working hours, bus timetables in the staff room to encourage more people to use public transport. Teleconferencing, car sharing and cycle racks to reduce the amount of travel by car.

Pot plants on wards are suggested, as is more locally produced and vegetarian food in hospital meals. Patients are also encouraged to lower their carbon footprint and improve health by walking and cycling more and eating more locally produced food.

Cushioned officials love extending their reach and producing this sort of guff. It burdens front line workers - the ones who make the difference - and taxpayers pay for it.

Such waste is endemic in a big taxpayer-funded organisation.