A SIMPLE business idea costing just £1.50 is saving the NHS thousands of pounds each month.

The Get You Started snack box is a carton filled with a selection of basic food items that helps patients to avoid spending an unnecessary night in Bridport Community Hospital.

Sometimes patients who could go home in the evening may not have enough food in the house to see them through until the morning when care becomes available.

They can be given the snack box, which contains milk, bread, tea, sugar, butter, jam, fruit and a pint of milk - enough for a night-time snack and breakfast the following day. Special dietary requirements can be catered for.

As a result, patients do not have to stay in hospital and a bed becomes available if needed.

And with the cost to the NHS of a patient staying in a bed overnight estimated to be around £1,000, savings are considerable compared to the £1.50 cost of each box.

The scheme was introduced to Bridport Hospital by facilities manager Mel Thomson, 36, who said: "I have had positive feedback from patients, ward staff and the occupational therapy team, who also use the boxes to assess patients on home visits.

"An average of eight to 10 patients a month are being given the snack box at Bridport Hospital."

Former Army sergeant Ms Thomson, who in her previous career cooked for the Queen, Princess Diana and other members of the Royal Family while based at Sandhurst Military College, left Dorset Primary Care Trust this week to work in the private sector.

But the snack box scheme is set to be expanded across Dorset Primary Care Trust's 11 community hospitals and other units according to Brenda Ackerman, also a facilities manager. Ms Ackerman said: "This is a simple idea that has worked extremely well. We will be extending it across the PCT."

Ms Thomson joined the former South West Dorset PCT in 2000 and at her farewell said it had been a challenging experience but she had been working with some wonderful people.

Her former boss Mel Cross, a project manager who had worked with Mel until his retirement, said it had been a privilege to know her and described her as 'capable, caring and efficient'.

Dorset Primary Care Trust provides primary health care in Dorset through GP services, dentists, pharmacists and opticians.

It manages community hospitals in Blandford, Sherborne, Shaftesbury, Portland, Bridport, Swanage, St Leonards, Wimborne, Wareham, John Talbot Ward of Weymouth Community Hospital and Westhaven Hospital, Weymouth.

The trust runs the mental health service in north and south west Dorset and also manages community services including Drugs and Alcohol, the Youth Advisory Service and the Wheelchair Service.