Since when did common sense have any place in NHS decision making Tom? I'm surprised at you. You've worked in the NHS for pretty much your entire life and your still surprised by things like this? Stupidity and idiocy are part of management of any organisation, more so in the NHS. Wasting nearly half a million is nothing. What is more annoying is when the same manager's turn round and tell you that you can't have a new computer because there's no room in the budget - or they make stupid decisions like stopping purchasing lined paper and making you use recycled printer paper. but since management knows best (tm) then you just have to take these decision and make sure you said I told you so when it goes A over T.