£600k spent replacing nurses' uniforms
THE Western Trust spent more than half-a-million pounds over the past four years replacing nurses uniforms.
The cost of replacing the uniforms was, however, less in the Western area than anywhere else in Northern Ireland.
The annual overhead rose from 195,000 in 2007/8 to 199,000 in 2008/9 to 215,000 in 2009/10. But the budgeted cost fell back to just 83,000 in 2010/11 due to a new cost-cutting regional contract that has been put in place to standardise uniforms across Northern Ireland.
Health Minister Michael McGimpsey revealed the costs in response to a question tabled at the Stormont Assembly.