NHS Staff Stripped Of Microsoft Office

In this month's copy of PC Pro is the story that since the coalition ended the NHS contract with Microsoft 3 years early, it's meant NHS staff will lose their home copies too:

Tens of thousands of NHS staff are to lose their personal copies of Microsoft Office after being caught out by a confusing licensing agreement.

Earlier this month, the NHS ended its £80 million Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft three years early. The agreement licensed 800,000 desktops across the health service, and offered software discounts to staff.

One discount was via the Home User Programme, which let NHS staff have a copy of Office 2007 for £8.95 for download or £17.95 for a disc. The full version of Office retails at £109.

The move appears to have angered some:

The sudden withdrawal of the Office licence has angered one PC Pro reader, who asked to remain anonymous. “Of course, I should have read the terms and conditions, but let's be honest, life's too short,” he said.

“I suppose I should also have guessed that £8.95 for a copy of Office or £17.95 for a physical disc was too good to be true,” he added, saying tens of thousands of NHS staff could be affected.

Too good to be true? Well it was only taxpayers' money. I'm not sure why the taxpayer is expected to contribute to software on people's personal computers, for what must only be of very limited benefit.

Never mind, I guess they'll now have do what everyone else does; buy it, use a free alternative or discover the delights of a torrent client.