Chelsea tickets, garden hot tubs and hotel meals – all on the NHS

NHS cash is being spent on football season tickets, National Trust memberships and renting beach huts, an investigation reveals.

Restaurant meals, Amazon Prime membership, Playstations and theme park passes have also been funded under the health service system of “personal budgets”.

NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGS) are allowed to decide how funds are best spent but there is growing concern about the use of NHS cash and fears that the system could be open to abuse.

CCGS spent thousands on cinema tickets, hot tubs and video games in the past year, according to details obtained under Freedom of Information requests. Health officials say that the schemes boosted wellbeing and helped patients struggling with isolation.

NHS West Sussex CCG spent £3,000 on a Chelsea FC season ticket, National Trust membership, and a pass for theme parks. It also booked a beach hut and dinner at Chichester Park Hotel for £313, saying it would support mental and emotional health.

The same CCG bought a patient an Amazon Prime membership, allowing free deliveries and a TV subscription, to alleviate isolation. It paid £279 for garden landscaping to create a “comfortable space”. NHS East Leicestershire and Rutland spent £300 on a PS4 games console and games, for the same reason.

NHS Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG spent £4,753 on a summer house and an £800 hot tub to aid a patient’s mobility. Thousands were spent on pilates, horse-riding and cinema tickets, the Taxpayers’ Alliance found.

Advocates of personal health budgets say they help with long-term conditions and disabilities and can be more beneficial than traditional treatments.

James Roberts, political director of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxes on working people should not be going up to pay for health service hot tubs.

“Given the new health and social care levy, taxpayers will not accept their money being wasted. While everyone’s care needs will be different, it beggars belief that health budgets could be forking out for Jacuzzis and video games.

“The upcoming spending review needs to ensure the NHS is offering value for money in every pound.”

The NHS said: “Personal health budgets support people in their community with profound and multiple physical disabilities, mental health, learning disability and/or autism, and it is for CCGS to work with patients and families to make decisions on individual budgets.”