The north’s health board paid more than £14,000 for flights for advisers from the US to visit the Highlands at a time when it was struggling to balance its books.
The business-class flights for four visitors came to light following a Press and Journal report on NHS Highland being forced to ask the Scottish Government for a £2.5million loan.
The bailout was needed because a massive overspend of £9.5million at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness helped plunge the board deeper into the red.
And politicians and a patient representative accused NHS Highland yesterday of wasting money. Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP Mary Scanlon said she was horrified to learn of the spend.
A reliable source, who did not want to be named, contacted the newspaper to highlight this “waste of money” after reading about the £2.5million loan.
They said they would have thought the money could have been better spent on patient services or not at all – if the health board did not have it to spend in the first place.
NHS Highland confirmed it had flown in four advisers from the US and that they had all travelled business class at a total cost of £14,161 – an average of £3,540 per person.
Director of quality improvement Linda Kirkland was one of three senior members of NHS Highland’s team who visited Seattle in Washington State to learn about the methods used by the Virginia Mason Medical Centre in 2012.
The hospital changed its healthcare delivery in 2002 and began using methods based on production systems used by Japanese car giant Toyota
Ms Kirkland said: “We have had four advisers – four visits with one adviser for each visit.
“They arrived late evening and travelling business class allowed them to start work first thing the next day, rather than delay a day to recover from the flight.”
Ms Kirkland added that the purpose of the visit was to train NHS Highland staff to undertake quality improvement to a rigorous standard using “an evidence-based approach”.
She said: “This has in turn allowed those staff to train others within NHS Highland.
“To date, over 2,000 staff have received training in quality improvement to some level.”
Ms Scanlon said yesterday she was horrified to be informed that the health board was wasting money on expensive flights for American advisers.
She said: “Examples such as this could be part of the reason NHS Highland was forced to go cap in hand to the Scottish Government for a loan. And loans have to be repaid, which will add to the debt in this coming year and future years.
“They would do well to take heed of the Scottish saying ‘Mony a mickle maks a muckle’, which is at the heart of Scottish thriftiness.”
And Dave Thompson, the SNP MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, said: “It certainly seems excessive flying four advisers over from the States at a cost of more than £14,000. If they needed to get someone over, I would have thought one adviser would have been enough and I don’t see why they needed to travel business class.”
Margaret Watt, who is chairwoman of the Scotland Patients Association, said: “If they had to bring the advisers at all, I don’t see why they needed to travel business class.
“Patients don’t get executive flights so they should have used normal flights the same as everyone else.”