A hospital showed it is feeling the pinch after a patient was sent to a supermarket to buy a pair of tweezers.

Unemployed lorry driver Dai Williams, 45, was suffering from ingrown eye lashes and thought a trip to A&E at Maidstone Hospital would quickly cure the painful problem.

But when the hospital’s large 'forceps’ failed to do the job, staff searched high and low for a smaller pair – with nurses even looking in their own handbags.

Then staff suggested Mr Williams pop out and buy some.

An amused Mr Williams, who lives with his partner Margaret in Bathurst Road, Staplehurst, went to A&E early one morning for what he thought would be a straightforward visit.

He explained: “One of the nurses put some drops in my eye and then picked up an enormous pair of tweezers.

“But they were too big to grasp the lashes so we didn’t get anywhere.

“She said they were trying to find a smaller pair and were looking all round the hospital.

“Some of the nurses and staff were even looking in their handbags, but no one found any.

“It was then someone suggested I went out and bought a pair, so off I went.”

He drove almost two miles to Sainsbury’s, at Aylesford, bought a couple of pairs of tweezers for £3.45, and drove back again.

He said: “They got the lashes out and I told them to keep the tweezers as the credit crunch must be hitting the NHS really badly.”

The whole exercise, he said, had taken about two-and-a-half hours.

His other concern was being charged again for parking when he returned, but the £2 fee was waived after he explained what had happened.

A hospital spokesman said: “We are sorry there were no tweezers small enough in the department and thank Mr Williams for offering to help solve the problem.

“We’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“We would not have expected it to happen in the first place and will happily repay Mr Williams for the ones he bought.”