ANGER has erupted after it was revealed that crisis-plagued Buckinghamshire hospitals had spent nearly half-a-million pounds on preparing for the possible arrival of the euro in Britain.

ANGER has erupted after it was revealed that crisis-plagued Buckinghamshire hospitals had spent nearly half-a-million pounds on preparing for the possible arrival of the euro in Britain.

The preparations also included 13,500 staff days spent preparing for the European currency, despite the hospitals struggling with a staffing and recruitment crisis.

The staffing crisis reached a peak last week when the Accident and Emergency Department at Wycombe Hospital was forced to close its doors for 24 hours.

Cllr Ricki A Hussein (Con, West Wycombe and Sands) was appalled at the news. He said: 'If this is the case then it is unacceptable and absolutely disgraceful.

'This money could be so much better spent on public health.'

South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust, which runs Wycombe Hospital, has been forced to spend £150,000, and more than 2,500 working days, producing reports on changes necessary for the possible introduction of the euro.

The 13,000 days devoted to the preparations in Buckinghamshire alone are the equivalent to 36 years of one person's work.

Every Government department, and most health authorities, are being subjected to the same procedure, leaving Tory MP David Lidington furious.

He criticised the figures saying they were scandalous and attacked the Government's 'warped sense of priority'.

The Aylesbury MP, who represents Princes Risborough, stormed: 'We know that health services in the Wycombe area are under huge strain. This is not how people want to see NHS resources used.

'The staff time and money should be spent on important health services in the Wycombe and Aylesbury area. It's disgraceful.'

He added: 'It's outrageous we should spend £400,000 on these preparations when we might never even take part.

'The message from the Government is that your wait for an operation or a cancer scan is less important to them than getting ready for the euro.'

Gary Tempest, spokesman for the Department of Health, said it was completely incorrect to suggest that money was being directed away from patient care to prepare for the euro.

He added: 'It's purely an administrative procedure which is already accounted for.'

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