Health staff criticise NHS bosses for 'obscene' £3,000 training sessions held at five-star hotel

Officials at a cash-strapped NHS Trust hired a five-star hotel for £3,000 for two days to carry out training on ‘waiting time implementation’.

Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys Foundation Trust provide help to some of the most vulnerable in society.

But officials hired luxury Rockliffe Hall hotel and spa in Hurworth, Co Durham - just five miles from their HQ in Darlington

A total of 90 staff attended over two days, at a cost of around £3,000.

The hotel is an AA five-star resort, with a swimming pool, luxury spa, three restaurants, and golf course.

Furious insiders at the mental health trust, which operates Roseberry Park hospital in Middlesbrough, told how the conference was funded from Government cash which had to be spent this financial year.

Trust staff spent two separate days at the Rockliffe - in a suite which usually costs around £1,000-a-day to hire.

A trust spokeswoman insisted they had negotiated a ‘discount’ to ensure value for money.

But hard-pressed trust staff who have faced a pay freeze in recent years were disgusted at the “obscene waste of money”.

“Instead it is being spent on an away day at a five-star hotel,” said one insider. “This could easily have been done at one of the trust buildings.

“It is an excuse to spend. It is an obscene waste given we should be helping people with serious health issues.”

The two days of conference meetings come at a time of widespread cuts across the trust.

Staff were warned a ‘skill mix review’ would see pay frozen, with higher paid staff replaced by those on a lower pay scale.

Ironically, the chief executive Martin Barkley wrote in his online diary about cost saving earlier this month.

He told his workforce: “The week started with what turned out to be an almost all day meeting of the executive management team in reviewing our cost reduction plans in detail for next year.”

Mr Barkley hit the headlines two years ago when he was awarded a £27,000 pay hike - taking his salary to £180,000 - when nurses were facing a pay freeze.

A Trust spokeswoman said guidance on how to access new waiting time standards was issued in February by NHS England, which come into effect on April 1, and training had to be carried out quickly.

She stressed the trust only uses external venues when unable to accommodate numbers in their own venues, ‘as in this case’.

She added: “In a short time scale, and with limited venue options, we arranged a two day training even for nearly 90 colleagues, at a third of the cost of the Rockcliffe’s usual rates, to prepare staff in the new national guidance.

“We believe it is important that our people were prepared as quickly as possible.”