BOSSES at a cash-strapped hospital spent £2,200 on holding high-powered meetings at hotels despite having their own facilities just a few miles away.

News Shopper has learned Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which is nearly £20m in debt, spent £784 holding an away day for IT staff at the Clarendon Hotel, Blackheath.

The hotel is just 2.5 miles from the hospital, in Stadium Road, Woolwich, which has its own state-of-the-art conferencing rooms.

The figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, also show hospital bosses forked out £1,465 for venues for two further meetings.

Senior managers twice thrashed out the hospital's financial plans at the Holiday Inn, Southwold Road, Bexley, which is just 7.5 miles away.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital Patients' Forum says the hospital should not be "wasting" its money, when it is in such a fragile financial position.

Chairman William Bruce said: "The ridiculous thing is there are excellent facilities at the hospital which are totally under-used.

"It would be a far better use of already scarce funds."

He added: "Why don't they use their own facilities? It is crazy."

Staff also attended an away day in Stoke, Staffordshire, which cost £2,500 and was paid for from charitable funds.

The hospital says none of the money spent on the away days came from the budget set aside for patient care.

A spokesman said: "The staff go away from the hospital because they need to get away from the distractions and disruptions of being on the site.

"Being outside their normal working environment helps them to think more freely."

The spokesman added the senior manager meetings were "exceptional events" which required "intense focus".