FOR an organisation that is supposed to be a strategic health authority, not a lot of strategic thinking seems to go on at NHS South Central.

Today we reveal how it spent almost £12,000 on a meet-up for 49 people at the Oxford Belfry Hotel.

No doubt the organisation is able to justify it as valuable to its staff.

But it is overseeing £200m in savings at NHS Oxfordshire alone, so at what point did managers think spending £12,000 at a four-star hotel was a good decision?

It is obviously a drop in the £200m ocean but it is still a significant amount of money – and crucially it is OUR money.

People are losing their jobs and our hospitals are having to make huge cuts which will inevitably impact on care for the public.

Surely there was a cheaper option: its own headquarters and a cheaper hotel down the road perhaps?

It’s also worrying that the health authority says it had no idea where those who stayed overnight had travelled from.

Surely there should have been some checks and balances within a proper, accountable public body that each overnight stay was justified.

The underlying worry is whether this indicates a free and easy attitude with money. If so, it must stop.