BEEF from Botswana and steak from Argentina have headed off the Mad Cow Disease crisis in hospitals.

Patients in the Burnley area will be able to continue to bite into beef without fear of BSE problems - because it's all imported!

The good news for red meat eaters in wards and staff canteens at the health trust isn't down to careful planning by managers anticipating the Mad Cow crisis. It is simply because supplies from abroad are cheaper.

Beef from Africa and South America invaded local hospital menus after importers undercut British meat suppliers for the North West hospitals contract, say Burnley managers.

So what may otherwise have been viewed as an embarrassing act of disloyalty, sure to infuriate Buy British campaigners, has proved a blessing in disguise for hospitals.

Burnley Trust staff and patients munch their way through around 700 lbs of beef products each week and all of it is imported since the hospital stopped using a local supplier.

In November, when British beef was still in use, the Trust defied Government guidelines that it was completely safe and, instead, backed the judgement of its own microbiologist and BSE expert, Dr Stephen Dealler, by taking beef products off all children's menus.

A Trust spokesman said today that ban would remain as an assurance to the public even though the hospital now only uses imported beef.

He added that beef would remain on patient and staff menus, but there would always be meat alternatives from which to choose.

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