An NHS primary care trust has come up with a novel - and expensive – approach to improving public health. The East Yorkshire trust, now known as NHS Hull, is proposing to spend £400,000 on buying a yacht.

The trust believes that the purchase of the vessel, which would be funded from its surplus of £40 million, would help it to raise standards of public health in the area, which includes the constituency of the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson.

Critics of the plan say that the money could be better spent on more conventional needs, such as improving hospital facilities In a briefing paper to explain the proposal, the trust says that “the NHS is no longer just about providing care to those who are sick”. It argues that “we need to tackle the reasons for illness rather than just tackle the outcomes of ill health”.

A suitable vessel has already been identified. It would sail with a crew of unemployed teenagers into the North Sea and around Scandinavia, as part of a training programme to help them into work. The idea is that they would return from the high seas not only with skills such as navigation and engineering, but an understanding of the benefits of healthy living.

The health authority says that over three years this welfare-to-work scheme would help 450 teenagers to lead healthier lives. The scheme would be funded by One Hull, a body that includes the heads of the council, the police service and NHS Hull, as well as representatives from businesses and voluntary groups. One Hull would be expected to cover the estimated £450,000 a year needed to run the scheme for the next three years.

The plan has come under fierce attack. Steve Brady, the opposition leader on Hull City Council, told The Times: “First of all, you would think that there were other problems, such as single-sex wards, to be addressed in Hull. Secondly, the government quan-go is spending public money running the yacht, when for a comparable amount of money it could be delivering hundreds of apprenticeships in skills that Hull needs.”

The proposal has met with derision in the local community. “I did not know that NHS money was for this sort of thing,” wrote a contributor on one of Hull’s online message boards.

“I thought it was to provide medical services when you are ill and needing medical care – not to provide a few youngsters whith freebies.”

Kath Lavery, chairman of NHS Hull, defended the scheme. “It’s a massive programme of intervention in young people’s lifestyles and choices,” she said. “It’s about showing young people in Hull there’s something good in life and they can make lifestyle choices which hopefully mean they will go into higher education.”

Hull’s primary care trust has in previous years lent money to struggling health authorities. A sum of £40 million has now been returned to the trust, all of which has to be spent in the next two years. About £10 million has been ploughed into the purchase of a local hospital previously run by a charity, and £120,000 has been used to refurbish existing hospital buildings.

Sail away from it all

NHS Hull says that the vessel it is proposing to buy is of the type used in the round-the-world clipper yacht race, which was conceived in 1995 by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. The boats used in the first races were known as Clipper 60s and named after the old tea clippers. In 2004 new Clipper 68s, which are 68ft long, were designed and built in Shanghai. The mast is 81ft tall.

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