Ten members of staff at a UK hospital have been suspended amid allegations that they used the net for shopping and holidays instead of working.

University Hospital of North Staffordshire suspended the staff after it detected lots of online activity when staff should have been working, reports the BBC.

Although staff are allowed to use the web at work for personal use, the hospital does have limits. An investigation, which is expected to last three weeks, is set to discover if staff misused their access to the net.

This month a survey by employment outfit Peninsula found that workers are using the internet for personal use more than ever before. Ebay is the most popular site for workers on the skive with four in ten admitting that they trawl the auction site while killing time at work.

In July, Peninsula also published research which found that British office workers are spending almost half their day surfing the net and sending emails with staff spending, on average, three hours a day online, compared to two hours in 2003. ®

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