NHS England is wasting nearly £220million a year on overpriced gas and electricity, analysis suggests.
It comes amid reports of Britons having to choose between putting food on the table or turning their hearting on as the cost of living crisis bites.
The TaxPayers' Alliance analysed costs at NHS trusts between 2019-2020 and found 'remarkable' differences in the amount being paid for energy.
NHS trusts are left to negotiate their own energy deals, with no national organisation from NHS England.
On average, trusts paid 14.4p per kilowatt hour (kWh) for electricity — but the most efficient trusts got costs down to less than half of that.
The most wasteful trusts were also spending 40 per cent more on gas.
If all trusts could match the lowest rates, it could save the health service a total of £218m a year — £150m on electricity and £68m on gas.
The savings could have paid the yearly salary of nine new nurses in every hospital in the UK for a year.
Campaigners today insisted 'struggling taxpayers need the NHS to be driving down these inefficiencies' given the new health and social care levy.
NHS hospitals in England could have saved up to £218million in gas and electricity costs if they had chosen cheaper deals, analysis has revealed. Graph shows: The average expenditure on electricity (left) and gas (right) paid by NHS hospitals (blue) compared to the price paid by the best-performing trust in the country (orange)
John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, told MailOnline: 'These findings raise questions about the huge spending disparities between hospitals on essential items.'
Britons saw their national insurance bill spike by 1.25 percentage points at the start of April, with the tax hike to fund the health service's recovery from the pandemic.
Pensioner Elsie's energy costs in her council flat have risen from £17 to £85 a month and she now uses her freedom bus pass to stay on buses all day to avoid using energy at home
The 77-year-old whose cost-of-living plight left Boris Johnson floundering was 'disappointed' with his response, it has been revealed.
The PM was confronted with the example of Elsie by Susanna Reid during a tricky interview on ITV's Good Morning Britain yesterday.
The pensioner's energy costs in her council flat have risen from £17 to £85 a month, and Reid told the premier that she now 'uses her freedom bus pass to stay on buses all day to avoid using energy at home'.
Extraordinarily, Mr Johnson replied by saying he had brought in the free bus pass that Elsie was using — even though in fact the benefit had been introduce years before he was London Mayor.
Speaking to LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr, Ms Reid said: 'I've spoken to Elsie, since the interview this morning with the Prime Minister, and she says how disappointed she is with what he said.
'Because she says there are people who are even worse off than she is, and there was no answer for them, apart from 'oh I was the person who was responsible for the bus pass,' I mean, as if she's supposed to be grateful.'
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Meanwhile, they have seen their own gas and electricity bills reach unprecedented levels.
Overall the tax burden is set to reach the highest in 70 years, while living standards are predicted
