A NURSING union has strongly criticised a North-East hospital trust for spending more than £38,000 sending 15 members of staff on a fact-finding trip to Sweden.

The group from the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust travelled to Jonkoping to learn about the city’s internationally celebrated health system.

Estephenie Dunn, the Royal College of Nursing’s acting North-East regional director, said it was “completely inappropriate” to send so many staff to Sweden at the same time as the trust was making cuts to jobs, beds and services.

The trust, which runs Darlington Memorial Hospital, the University Hospital of North Durham and Bishop Auckland General Hospital, plans to cut up to 700 staff over the next three years.

Ms Dunn said this was the same trust which, on January 12, admitted it had staff shortages at the medical assessment unit at the Durham hospital and appealed for nursing staff to get in touch.

Ms Dunn said: “In this day and age of internet, email and Skype, are they really saying they could not have undertaken this work without sending 15 staff to Sweden?

“Alternatively, if they really did need face-to-face contact, they could have invited an expert from Sweden here, at a significantly reduced cost.”

A trust spokesman said: “We have lots to do to integrate hospital and community services and, if we are going to do so effectively, we need to learn from places that do this now, and do this well.

“A group of clinical staff and key managers went to Jonkoping in Sweden because of the international reputation of its local health system.

“This educational visit was funded from our organisational development budgets, so did not take funds away from frontline care. We are also learning from projects in the UK.”

Ms Dunn added that there were good examples of integrated providers closer to home.

News of the trip emerged after a managerial group at the trust, called the Leaders Forum, discussed the visit.

In his blog, trust chief executive, Stephen Eames said: “The health system in Jonkoping is internationally celebrated as an example of integrated care. It is regularly visited by professionals from across the world facing similar challenges to our own.”