IF the NHS never has enough money, what on earth is it doing shelling out £250,000 to subsidise bus services in East Lancashire?

I'm sure sufferers

waiting months on end for operations will be

staggered by these

priorities.

NHS money, which could buy them earlier

treatment, is to be spent on laying on buses for people who are plainly well if they are fit enough to use public transport.

What's got into the NHS trust bosses doling out this amount for bus services across Blackburn and

Darwen to the new 'super'

hospital the Queen's Park Hospital is to become over the next three years?

It sounds to me that they have become infected with the same anti-car

obsession that fevers the minds in our town halls.

This ludicrous health-cash-for-bus-rides deal is part of a 'green' transport plan to encourage workers to use public transport or share cars.

But what business is it of the NHS or the council if people prefer to drive to work in their cars instead of hanging about in a draughty bus shelter or standing in the rain waiting for a lift? It's supposed to be a free country.

Perhaps our patients' watchdogs will tell us whether they think £250,000 of NHS money for workers' bus rides is just the ticket.