An NHS hospital in Manchester is spending taxpayers’ money on pornography.
St Mary’s Hospital has spent between £22 and £105 each year since 2005 on adult magazines.
Central Manchester Hospitals – which runs St Mary’s – is one of 33 trusts in England which provide men with porn to help them produce sperm samples for IVF treatment.
Fifteen trusts had material given by patients or publishers free of charge, but 18 paid for material, including DVDs and magazines.
But the think tank 2020health, which carried out the survey, claimed the practice promotes ‘adultery of the mind’.
The think tank estimated the NHS spends £700 a year on porn, excluding the cost of viewing equipment.
Julia Manning, a director of 2020health and the report’s author, said two-thirds of NHS trusts surveyed did not supply porn, showing there was no genuine need for it.
She said: “We know of no government authorisation that sanctioned this, or any exception to any NHS trust’s employment terms that allow staff to have pornographic material at work.
“Pornography deprives women of full human status and reduces them to sex objects. It gives permission to its consumers to treat women as they are treated in porn.
“Almost 80 per cent of the NHS workforce is female and they should never have to work in an environment that endorses pornography.”
Ms Manning said NHS bosses were effectively telling men they ‘should sexually objectify an unknown woman while producing a specimen, rather than think of a partner’.
She added: “For the NHS to unnecessarily introduce addictive material to patients during their treatment beggars belief.
“And to do this at a time when men are particularly vulnerable, already facing the emotional and physical pressures of possible infertility, is inexcusable.”
A spokesman for St Mary’s said: “The material is purchased from local newsagents that any member of the public can purchase.
“By providing material chosen by our health professionals we can ensure it is appropriate. This report fails to recognise that providing sperm samples is a vital clinical process.
“Over recent years there has been a significant decline in donors.”
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This isn't new. They've been doing it for years. I suppose the way to avoid ‘adultery of the mind’ is for the donor to turn up with porny pics of his own missus.
For god's sake, get a grip MEN, every IVF clinic has been doing this for years for obvious reasons. Would you rather they used second hand donated ones ugh!? What's the next planned story.....'Traffic wardens to give out penalty tickets', 'Dark cloud produces rain over city, 'milk bottle contained milk'? Ridiculous, yet another excuse to have a pop at the NHS
This really is one hell of a non-story. Do some real reporting, please!
a friend of mine is going through IVF at the moment & said the reason they provide the magazines is partly because they have time slots in which you have to produce a sample & being ushered into a clinical room with a pot makes it pretty hard to produce on demand without the aid of something to make it quicker (if that makes sense)
this practice has been going on for years but if they wanted to save money why dont they just buy the daily sport??
2020health describes itself as a "grassroots" organisation, yet its advisory council contains a former director of the Welcome Trust and Astra Zeneca, a Managing Director of N M Rothschild the Chief Executive, Association of Optometrists a Chief Executive, Association of Optometrists the Chief Executive, Dental Practitioners Association and the Chief Executive, Dental Practitioners Association and is based in that well known haunt of the common man " the heart of Westminster"
Must be a different definition of grassroots to the usual one
Ms Manning said NHS bosses were effectively telling men they ‘should sexually objectify an unknown woman while producing a specimen, rather than think of a partner’.
Shes right, every time you objectify a woman sexually a woman somewhere drops dead. You have to clap your hands and say "I believe in women" for any chance to save her.
Adultery of the mind,never heard of that one before but it looks like I,m off to hell when I pop me clogs.
I think the report's author would do well to put herself in the position of a couple struggling to have a child, going through the long and desperate process to get to the bottom of the what may be the cause. She should then consider how extremely difficult it is for a man under that emotional pressure and in a noisy/busy/clinical environment to "perform" to produce his sample.
Her comments on the report above demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of the impact of fertility problems on a couple. To say a man in that situation should be "thinking of his partner" as if it's something sexual he's doing to pleasure himself, rather than part of an emotionally charged medical procedure is insulting. No one is forced to use porn - it's an option that's there to help those who are struggling.
There are lots of people out there with a moral objection to eating meat. I don't know the figures, but I bet a lot more than £700 is spent on providing meat to patients. Does the author want to prevent the NHS spending money on feeding recovering patients meat to avoid offending some people on the same argument?
I would also like to add to this that I would rather my hard earned money was spent on magazines for men to help the process towards them becoming parents than spent on free needles for smack heads, gastric bands for fatties, mobility scooters for those who are too lazy to walk, etc etc need I go onur comment here...
I'm so glad the good people of Manchester are seeing this for the ridiculous story it is! Shame on you MEN for trying to degrade the NHS and more importantly IVF clinics! They do an amazing job providing hope to thousands of child-less couples. And I think we're also forgetting that it won't only be men trying to children using this clinic, it will be man who are selflessly and anonymously donating sperm for complete strangers and may not even have a partner to think of!
The magazines are in a drawer labelled 'Magazines' so you only see them if you want to anyway. What is the issue here??
What do they do with the old copies? Any old Razzles or Escort?
Oooooooh! Matron!
Here in Bolton we have a name for men who perform this particular act.
Fellows...always imagine Margaret Thatcher (The power of suggestion:Now St.Mary's,you'll have to increase the porn budget)
"Pornography deprives women of full human status" -- Absolute rubbish. Not giving women a choice deprives them of their human rights,
"[women] should never have to work in an environment that endorses pornography.” They don't have to, and can go and find a job elsewhere, not that a workplace necessarily "endorses" the material.
"Ms Manning said NHS bosses were effectively telling men they ‘should sexually objectify an unknown woman" -- They are saying no such thing. Perhaps Ms Manning just doesn't like porn, and doesn't accept that women can think for themselves.
Having had IVF with my wife at St Mary`s i find this report absolute rubbish. The pressure on the couples at the time of providing your sample is massive.
You are summond to give your sample at a couple of minutes notice. Locked into a standard hospital room with a bed, toilet, sink, and the sample pot. In the meantime your wife, or partner is waiting to have an operation for egg retrival.
Thanks to the magazines provided, i produced my sample ( might be to much detail for some ).
We now have a fit and healthy one year old girl. Small price to pay don`t you think?? And it never gave me the urge to go out by the magazines for myself.
WHAT A WASTE OF TAX PAYERS MONEY. They (fathers) should buy these magazines themselves.
John Adler(Manchester)
I can only say there has never been a better news report in which to quote the late, great, comic genius - Bill Hicks:
They're putting the cart before the horse on this pornography issue. Playboy doesn't cause sexual thoughts. Sexual thoughts exist and, therefore, there is Playboy. Do you see? … You know what causes sexual thoughts? I'm gonna clear the air for you tonight. I'm gonna end this debate, hopefully once and for all while on this planet, 'cause outer space awaits our presence, we are better and more unique creatures than this and all eternity is our playground, so let me go ahead and clear this one issue up once and for all and let's move on to real issues. Can we? Great.
Here's what causes sexual thoughts, drum roll: having a d***
Thank you Mr Hicks.
1961 - 1994
(D*** isn't swearing guys, you'd be mad not to print this) lol
2020 who? Sound like a bunch of moron fundies no-one takes notice of. Quit giving them the column inches they so desperately desire.
Totally agree with JF what a well written response, the author should be ashamed of this article, trying to make a cheap headline out of what can be a very difficult and emotional time for couples.
I'd like my doctor / dentist to allocate some of their budget on these publications. I find the waiting room, and its tattered copies of House and Home and Hello, a tedious waste of my time...
"The think tank estimated the NHS spends £700 a year on porn, excluding the cost of viewing equipment"
what on earth is viewing equipment ? Eyes?
I work in a hospital that has a bout 300,000 inpatient days a year and around 250,000 outpatient appointments a year. £700 on just my hospital would only be a fraction of a penny per patient so across the whole NHS, very tiny amount, if it was £700k a year on porn, you could argue that Trusts should stick a PC in the room and allow access to porn, that would reduce costs.
The arguments against porn are weak too: "It gives permission to its consumers to treat women as they are treated in porn". That is just like the claim that watching violence in films and television, videogames etc will cause violent behaviour, only to the nutters who will do so anyway, not for the vast majority of sane consumers who know the difference between fantasy and reality. I have enjoyed plenty of violent action films and never had the inclination (or athletic ability) to repeat what I saw on screen. I have enjoyed watching plenty of pornography in the past (sshh, no one tell Mrs Tumnus) and again, never had the inclination (and again, athletic ability!) to repeat what I saw on screen,
£700 pounds a year wasted. This is an absolute national scandal.
I say sack the pen pushing bean counting bureaucrats and their fat cat pensions too!