HEALTH service employees were paid £4.5 million to stay away from work in just three years because they had been suspended from their job.

New figures released under Freedom of Information legislation also show that while they were on gardening leave, doctors, nurses and administration staff missed 50,000 days at their posts.

The true figure for absences and the cost of funding them will be considerably higher, as a number of health boards refused to provide the information.

In NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, almost 500 employees were suspended at some point between 2012 and now. It meant the health board lost 26,985 employee days and spent more than £2 million paying workers to stay at home.

Irenee O’Neill, general secretary of the Independent Federation of Nursing in Scotland, said: "It breaks my heart to think of the medical care which this money could otherwise provide.

“In my view, this is a total waste of public cash but health boards can do nothing about it – the rules say suspended employees must be paid.”

All 14 health boards in Scotland were asked to supply details about the number of staff members who had been suspended in the last three years and the amount of money needed to pay their salary.

NHS employees can be suspended for a variety of alleged offences, including sleeping on duty, theft, sexual misconduct, ill treatment of patients and, increasingly, social media misbehaviour.

The vast majority relieved of their posts were nurses.

Ms O’Neill said she believes too many NHS employees are being suspended unnecessarily.

She said: "Health boards need to evaluate very carefully before they take a decision to suspend.

“There are many alternatives, like redeploying the employee in another place and providing them with supervision.

“It can also be highly problematic trying to get a disciplinary hearing organised. These procedures need to have the staff member’s line manager and a human resources representative present. But everyone is always ‘at a meeting’ and these suspensions can go on and on because people's diaries don’t match up.

“Mrs Thatcher sent a Task Force to the Falklands, defeated the Argentines and welcomed our forces back home in less time than some health boards can convene a disciplinary hearing.”

The findings included the disclosure that NHS Ayrshire and Arran paid two employees who had each been suspended for over a year.

The cost to different health boards varied greatly. While NHS Lothian spent £261,198 on salaries for suspended workers, the bill was more than four times greater at NHS Fife, which had to pay out £1,090,597.

Both NHS Highland and NHS Grampian refused to provide the information, saying it would be too expensive to carry out checks.

NHS Shetland said just eight employees were paid during a period of suspension.

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said:"All boards in Scotland follow national guidance which is agreed with staff side partnerships in relation to staff who are suspended.

"On occasions, suspension may be used to protect the individual’s best interest and enable a full and fair investigation to take place. Suspension will always be on full pay.

"Suspension is not a disciplinary measure and is not undertaken without very careful consideration with human resources’ advice and senior management authorisation.

"NHSGGC recognises that it is essential any investigation is undertaken as quickly as possible to ensure the suspension period is kept to a minimum for both the staff member and the team in which they work.”

CASE STUDY

KATE Wynn claims the NHS in Scotland has left her “sick” – 10 years after she was suspended from her job as a senior nurse.

The health service professional had spent 29 years in the NHS before her career was halted by what she claimed were “malicious” claims against her.

She successfully emerged from an eight-month period of suspension over claims of bullying and harassment when her employer agreed there was no case to answer.

Now aged 61, Ms Wynn said: "It was a devastating period of my life. It destroys your purpose, your self-confidence.

“I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat. I became extremely distressed and felt very isolated."

She said that her case was an example of the increasing cost of suspensions to the health service. She was able to return to work but she was elected to accept a post one grade lower than her previous position because it appealed to her.

However, she is still being paid the higher rate for her previous post, a decade on.

Ms Wynn added: "I now suffer from an auto-immune disease. I can’t prove it was caused by my period of suspension but I am in no doubt the NHS made me sick.

“I won’t say I reached the point where I was suicidal but I know some people have completed suicide as a result of being suspended from the NHS.”