GOVERNMENT cuts are affecting us all, not only by our standard of living with less costing more, but also by way of the council and NHS budget slashing.

But as my fellow Warfarin users in Bournemouth and Poole will be aware, the amalgamation of the two blood test facilities has created a massive, and in my view, unnecessary spend.

Previously, we had a little yellow book with our latest results telling us how much Warfarin to take, and we gave them an SAE in which to return it.

Now, we have been sent an A5 yellow folder (well, they sent me the same package twice, so how's that for being thrifty?), two yellow books, and something which looks like a wages slip with pre-paid postage by the NHS, which will do exactly the same job, but has probably cost thousands of pounds to produce.

OK, I'm happy that they are paying the postage, but I didn't object to buying a stamp every two or three weeks when my test was due, to get my results back.

But the rest of it seems to be the result of a bunch of highly-paid management twerps deciding to make it look like they have done something valid and spent a small fortune from an already Billy Bunter tight budget, needlessly.

These days we need to take a leaf out of Open All Hours Arkwright's book – “Spend money, Granville? W-What do you mean, sss-pend money?”

I am at a loss as to why they have spent money on a system that worked perfectly well as it was.

Alan Burridge, Upton