HEALTH bosses are coming under fire after three senior members of staff flew to the US for conferences on culture and leadership.

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust spent about £5,500 on a week-long trip to Florida and Washington for chief executive Phil Morley, chief of workforce and organisational development Jayne Adamson and chief operating officer Amanda Pye.

The US trip including a sunset cruise onboard a luxury yacht, comes as the trust is under pressure to save £95 million by 2015.

Mr Morley defended the trip to Florida's Gold Coast as part of a plan to make the trust a "world-class organisation".

But Ray Gray, regional officer for Unison, said: "There is no way that trip can be justified at this moment in time.

"We are told every penny counts. There must be other ways of getting the same information, either by teleconferencing or through written information.

"I thought they had more sense than to put themselves in the firing line. People will think this is appalling."

Mr Morley was invited to speak at the Denison Best Practices Forum 2012 at the £200-a-night Delray Beach Marriott hotel.

The 181-room hotel, with three restaurants, two outdoor pools, a whirlpool, a fitness centre and a spa, is near Ocean Boulevard, home to some of Florida's most exclusive bistros, shopping areas and nightlife.

A sunset cruise aboard the Lady Atlantic yacht was part of the conference after a pool-side networking reception.

The health team met representatives from organisations including Hertz, the University of Michigan Health System and Whirlpool "to learn from their experiences and improve the care we provide to patients in our region".

The senior staff spent a day-and-a-half meeting international teams in Washington before heading to the Sunshine State for the three-day conference.

Mr Morley said conference organiser Denison, which aims to help companies by "improving their corporate culture and leadership", paid for his trip, excluding meals and flights.

However, the trust covered the cost of flights for all three, as well as conferences and accommodation for Mrs Adamson and Ms Pye, with the staff picking up the tab for their own meals.

Katrina McWatt, 30, had been forced to make 130-mile round trips to Sheffield for four weeks as her daughter Cali fought for her life because Hull's neonatal unit did not have enough staff, equipment or cots to care for her daughter.

"I think it's disgusting," said Miss McWatt.

"You can see there is a clear shortage of money on the ward for machinery, incubator covers and other things. That money could have been better spent on the staffing and equipment issues."

Alan Brattan, chairman of the paediatric high dependency unit family involvement group at Hull Royal Infirmary, also spoke of his concerns after the unit was moved to ward 120 as a temporary measure last month.

He said: "As a parent group, we have been told these changes had to happen for budget reasons and there is a need to cut costs in the trust.

"Then we find this is happening as well. It's a long way for a jolly."

The trust said the team flew over two weekends, from January 14 to 21, to keep flight costs to a minimum.

Mr Morley said talks over how to engage staff more and how to give exceptional customer service took place as well discussions about the role of leadership and culture shift in organisations.

"We were asked to go and present at this conference," he said.

"It's about trying to make the trust a world-class organisation.

"We paid for meals ourselves and used our own weekend days because that saved £1,000 on the cost."

Mr Morley said he did not believe the cost was "exceptional" for five days of speaking at international conferences.

"If you want a world-class service, you have to involve world-class people," he said.

Mr Morley said the team made contacts who were interested in coming to see the work being done by the trust, which runs Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham.

He said: "This wasn't a holiday. We were still working while we were there."