THE cost of providing round the clock nursing supervision at Ford Ward in Fordingbridge Hospital for 45 days last year was £57,000. And that was a huge waste of money, according to Fordingbridge mayor Cllr Alan Lewendon.

Hampshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) decided to bring in agency nurses supplied by Thornbury Nursing Services as supervisors at Ford Ward after some staff were suspended following complaints about quality of care on the ward.

The ward has been closed since October while an investigation is carried out, causing outrage amongst many residents and leading to a huge amount of support for the Forest Journal campaign calling for it to be re-opened.

Cllr Lewendon used the Freedom of Information Act to discover the cost of providing the 24-hour coverage between October 10 and November 26.

"It would have been better to have moved a couple of nurses in from the PCT rather than waste this huge amount of money," he said.

In addition, money was spent relocating staff while the ward is closed for its "deep clean" and investigation.

"It's mad; a huge waste of money and it's upset the staff beyond belief," he said.

Katrina Percy, director of care services for Hampshire PCT said: "Fordingbridge Hospital had high sickness rates and levels of other leave at this time. This meant we needed to use agency staff to ensure we provided high quality patient care.

"To ensure we could keep agency costs to a minimum, we reviewed the staffing levels at our other hospitals, which showed we couldn't re-deploy staff from these areas without compromising patient care.

"We paid the appropriate fees for the agency cover we needed, but would like to be clear that the costs equate to having one qualified nurse per day."