Fertility clinic unveils £7,500 'porn suite'

It's not the kind of spending that David Cameron and George Osborne would approve of as they usher in a new age of austerity, but an NHS trust in Liverpool has forked out £7,500 on a special facility at a fertility clinic with the aim of aiding and abetting the efforts of sperm donors.

The centre was built by Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust and contains everything that the modern man needs to produce a sperm sample. According to the Sun, which dubs it a 'porn suite', the room has been kitted out with computer equipment worth £4,625, flat screen TVs to the tune of £2,225, plus a £500 collection of 'adult movies'.

The cost of the facility was split with private outfit North West Fertility, but that has not stopped the TaxPayers Alliance expressing its shock at the expense of the project.

It said the trust's outlay was "astonishing". It also pointed out that in the modern age there was a convenient one-stop shop for the sort of material a sperm donor needs. "Most people would think all a fertility clinic needs these days is an internet connection,” said the organisation. “But clearly this one thinks giving a sample should be a five-star, hi-tech experience.

"This money could have been spent on treatment rather than on trying to improve on methods that have always worked just fine."

According to the Sun, other trusts are more conservative in their outlay. It revealed that Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust spends just £5 a year while Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust gets old mags direct from a publisher. And apparently visitors to IVF Wales have to make do with second-hand materials donated by locals. ·