A trade union has dubbed a Huddersfield and Calderdale hospital team's 10-day trip to the USA as a "junket".
Trade union Unison, described the 10-day US trip as a “scandal” and called for hospital chief Owen Williams to reveal its true cost.
Unison said when the cost of cover staff, internal flights and expenses were taken into account, it believed the trip would cost in the region of £80,000 – £100,000.
Regional health organiser, Gary Cleaver, said: “Unison is deeply concerned that the Trust can find taxpayers’ money for a 10-day trip to the USA when we know they are already in deep financial trouble.
“The public deserves a full breakdown of this expenditure, which would have funded at least three nurses for a year.
“Taxpayers have a right to know precisely who was sent on this trip, the purpose of their presence and what reporting responsibilities they will have on their return.
“We know for a fact that similar electronic patient record systems are being used in London and Newcastle and can therefore not understand why there was any need to send 14 members of staff, at enormous cost, to go New York, Kansas and Texas. It is unbelievable.
“If it had not been for a ‘whistleblower’ alerting the public to what many are calling a ‘junket’, the public would never have known about the huge amount of money spent on the trip.
“We are now demanding that the Trust chief executive Owen Williams, reveals the real audited costs of this, and the names of those involved so that our members, and the public they serve, can make their own views known about how their money is being spent
“At a time when the Government is arguing for even more cuts to real pay for NHS staff, who are struggling just to keep their heads above water, this sort of luxury expenditure is genuinely offensive.
“I have written to chief executive Owen Williams, with a freedom of information request so that we can all see what this trip has cost the Trust, and the public purse which has funded this jet-setting approach to the NHS.”
