HEALTH bosses came under fire last night for spending almost £12,000 on a lecture and study day at a four-star hotel in Oxfordshire.

NHS South Central last night confirmed it paid for 49 people to attend the Oxford PGMDE Annual Educators’ Study Day at the Oxford Belfry Hotel in February.

Campaigners labelled the meeting a “disgusting” waste of money at a time when the NHS was facing swingeing cuts.

The day featured keynote lectures on planning for the future, training health professionals and workforce planning.

It was organised by the Oxford Deanery, which has strong links with Oxford University and is involved with training and educating dentists and doctors.

The hotel, which describes itself as a “prestigious four-star hotel in Oxford, perfect for spa breaks, weddings and conferences” billed the trust £3,270 for 22 people to stay overnight after an evening lecture on February 16. The remainder of the bill was for lunch, three refreshment breaks and the hire of the meeting room.

Trust bosses refused to reveal where those who stayed overnight had travelled from, claiming it did not “record the information”.

The following day three-and-a-half hours of lectures and workshops, interspersed with ‘refreshment’ breaks, were held at the hotel and ended with an hour-long update from the Postgraduate Dean.

In total, the event cost £11,962.50. Alcoholic refreshments were not included.

NHS South Central, the strategic health authority, which covers Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, funded the day.

It will oversee more than £200m savings over the next four years for NHS Oxfordshire, the county’s primary care trust, which commissions care for Oxfordshire. Details of the meeting were leaked to the Oxford Mail in a letter warning the spending was “the tip of the SHA iceberg”.

A spokesman for the trust said it had secured the hotel at a ‘24-hour delegate rate’, adding: “This annual professional development event is attended by staff from across the NHS South Central region.

“It is an opportunity to share the latest developments in NHS education and network with leading professionals in this field. The event gained excellent feedback from attendees in terms of usefulness to their work in NHS Education.”

The decision to spend the money on a four-star hotel, in light of the cuts the county is faced with, attracted criticism.

Emma Boon, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said it was insensitive in light of recent cuts and job losses across the NHS.

She said: “With huge pressures on NHS budgets, expensive away days like this are hard to justify. Not using a top hotel could have saved thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money.”

Kidney cancer sufferer and campaigner Clive Stone, from Freeland, near Witney, added: “Why am I not shocked by this further waste of taxpayers’ money?

“This is disgusting when they are at the same time making us fight for drugs and treatments that we are entitled to.”

But Ian McKendrick of the Oxfordshire Anti Cuts Alliance, said it was unclear whether it was an effective way of spending NHS money as it could have been important in NHS learning.

Last month the Oxford Mail revealed transport chiefs at Oxfordshire County Council spent more than £4,500 on a meeting and overnight stay at a prestigious resort. Seven highways officers attended the two-day workshop at the £50m Heythrop Park resort, near Enstone.