NHS chiefs have paid almost £1.7million in wages to staff who had already moved or left their job.
The cash errors happened over a three-year period at health boards around the country.
Bosses are still trying to recover more than £600,000 from hundreds of former employees despite them being contacted about the overpayments.
Administration problems partly caused by junior doctors moving between hospitals has been blamed.
NHS Lothian paid £658,640 to ex-staff – the highest figure to emerge from statistics released under freedom of information laws. Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Tayside and Grampian trusts paid out more than £130,000 each year over the same period.
Politicians and campaigners yesterday called for tighter control over how salaries are paid and greater effort to recover cash owed.
Dr Richard Simpson MSP
Scottish Labour public services spokesman Dr Richard Simpson said: “Now, more then ever, we need a health
service free at the point of delivery based on patient need, not ability to pay.
“We also need our health service to have the proper resources to deliver care.
“It’s concerning that sums of money still go uncollected when they could be used to deliver better support for staff.”
In 2014/15 alone, NHS Lothian – the country’s second-largest health board – paid out £288,523 to 155 departed employees.
They also paid former staff £167,552 in 2013/14 and £202,654 in 2012/13.
NHS Lothian director of finance Susan Goldsmith
NHS Lothian director of finance Susan Goldsmith said: “NHS Lothian take debt of any origin seriously and we’re committed to actively pursuing all overpayments and unpaid invoices.
“We recover around 90 per cent of overpayments within the same financial year.”
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde – Scotland’s largest trust – paid out an extra £141,852.84 in 2014/15, £142,186.25 in 2013/14 and £167,400.39 in 2012/13.But bosses say it’s a tiny proportion of their overall wage budget and are
confident of getting the money back.
A spokeswoman said: “NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has a total wage bill of £1.5billion per annum.
“The outstanding overpayment figure is 0.002 per cent of our wage bill and it should be noted that a significant
percentage of this amount will be recouped through repayment agreements with individuals.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said laws prevented NHS Scotland from automatically deducting cash owed from employees who have moved to other regions.
She added: “NHS Scotland employ more than 160,000 staff, with staff receiving an overpayment making up a very small proportion.
“We expect health boards to follow appropriate procedures to collect all money that should be returned.”
An NHS Grampian spokesman said: “Salary overpayments in respect of staff who have left the organisation occur mainly as a result of the employee leaving without notice or notification of this has not occurred prior to pay day in order to amend the salary payment appropriately.
“NHS Grampian have a process to recover this money, which includes contacting the employee directly on several occasions at regular intervals, engaging the services of a debt collection agency and taking legal action where appropriate.
“The net value of the overpayments in each of the years equates to 0.03 per cent of the total net salary disbursement and the net values outstanding equate to 0.01-0.02 per cent.”
