Overstretched nurses in a British hospital are being told to turn the beds of Muslim patients towards Mecca five times a day, it is being reported.

The U.K.'s Daily Express said that the measure is part of a new program that tries to address the needs of Muslim patients, and was implemented after hospital administrators at Dewsbury and District Hospital canvassed patients on how staff could improve their service.

Click here to read the full Daily Express story.

Patients will also be provided halal meals and shower facilities to allow patients to wash themselves in running water prior to prayer.

But the taxpayer-funded training program is creating turmoil among the stressed-out staff, who say they must interrupt potentially life-saving medical work to move the beds.

Training has begun for the several hundred staff at Dewsbury and District but could be introduced at other hospitals in the new year.