At the end of May, the Government sent Coalition Health Minister Andrew Lansley to audit the books of Nottingham's City Hospital.
While the Andrew Lansley was checking the books he turned to the Manager of the Hospital and said:
"I notice you buy a lot of bandages. What do you do with the end of the roll when there's too little left to be of any use?"
"Good question," noted the Hospital Manager. "We save them up and send them back to the bandage company and every now and then they send us a free box of bandages."
"Oh," replied Lansley, obviously somewhat disappointed that his unusual question had a practical answer.
But on he went, in his obnoxious way.
"What about all these plaster purchases? What do you do with what's left over after setting a cast on a patient?"
"Ah, yes," replied the Hospital Manager, realising that Lansley was trying to trap him with an unanswerable question. "We save it and send it back to the manufacturer, and every now and then they send us a free package of plaster."
"I see," replied Lansley, thinking hard about how he could fluster the know-it-all Hospital Manager.
"Well," he went on, "What do you do with all the leftover foreskins from the circumcisions you perform?"
"Here, too, we do not waste," answered the Hospital Manager.
"What we do is save all the little foreskins and send them to the Prime Minister's Office, and about once a year he sends us a complete prick!"
