Pasta at £47 a bag, £42000 on biscuits and a public sector that can't be ...

At a time of redundancies and ward closures, there is a completely painless way for the NHS to save the taxpayer money: send its patients to dine at the Ivy, London's most famous celebrity restaurant.

There, a plate of potato gnocchi with pommarola tomato sauce, artichokes and parmesan costs £17.50 - not the cheapest on the menu, but a huge saving on the £47 which Eastern and Coastal Kent NHS Trust has been spending on each pack of pasta it buys for gluten-intolerant patients.

The trust has finally come round to suggesting to sufferers - who can have gluten-free food prescribed - that they buy their pasta at the supermarket instead, at a typical cost of £2 a pack.

Until now, the trust has been sourcing the food from a supplier which charges £5 a pack, plus a £1 dispensary fee, a £1 pharmacy fee and £40 for delivery.

The £47 doesn't even include the sauce. It would almost be funny - if the money wasn't coming straight from our pockets. Sadly, the £47 pack of pasta is all too typical of the waste that is endemic in public sector procurement.

One year into the Government's austerity drive, we are beginning to discover the shocking extent of this profligacy.

A report last year into government procurement by Sir Philip Green, CEO of retail group Arcadia, revealed the extravagant sums that civil servants are spending on everyday items for their offices.

One ministry was managing to spend £73 on each box of copier paper — something which can be bought in bulk for just £8. Another office was buying laptops for £2,000 each — six times the going rate. A publicity campaign cost the taxpayer £1.31 in printing costs for each leaflet that should have cost 26p.

The most absurd example of all, however, came from George Osborne’s own office at the Treasury. Last December, the Chancellor was quoted £875 to supply a Christmas tree by Exchequer Partnerships Ltd — the Private Finance Initiative consortium which runs the Treasury building.

When he asked whether he could go out and buy his own office tree from B&Q at a cost of £40, he was told that it would constitute an ‘off-contract’ tree — and that maintenance staff would refuse to water it.

Private Finance Initiatives, which really took off under New Labour, allow private investment into public sector infrastructure. The idea is that competitive market forces bring economic rigour to the public sector.

How can I keep dry dog food fresh? | Pet Food Cookbook

My boyfriend’s dog spends a few weekday mornings at my house while my boyfriend’s at work so I have a container of his dry dog food at my house. Sometimes he won’t finish the food in his bowl so it usually lays out for a while because I don’t really like throwing it back in the container and by the time he comes back to my house, I think the food get stale so I end up throwing it out. Any ideas on how to keep dry dog food fresh in the plastic container AND how to keep the leftover food fresh for the next time he comes?

Best answer:

Answer by chance

A lidded container for the food in the bag. We used to use a small garbage can and line it with a plastic bag with a twist tie. As for the food in the bowl, If the dog is leaving left overs, you are probably feeding him too much. If there is any left, it shouldn’t be more than a couple of mouthfuls. Remember, dogs can get over weight , just like people can and they will suffer many of the same same obesity related health problems.

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