The financial situation at the north’s flagship hospital was one of the major factors in NHS Highland’s budget deficit last year.
Raigmore Hospital in Inverness was millions of pounds overspent, with underspends from other services used to plug the gap.
Hoped-for savings at the hospital failed to emerge by February 2014.
Instead another £400,000 was added to the overspend – with just weeks to go before the end of the financial year.
Around the same time, a new management team was installed at the hospital following the departure of general manager Chris Lyons.
Internal auditor Chris Brown said that one problem at Raigmore was the “huge fluctuations” in costs depending on which drugs were used. He said it was difficult to predict.
The internal audit report about Raigmore identified that there was no “strong culture of tight financial management”.
He said: “People were making decisions for the best interests of patients without taking enough recognition of the financial implications of those decisions.
“There are major fluctuations in cost depending on decisions clinicians make in hospitals.”
He said that clinicians and managers had to work together more.
The spectacle of the committee’s visit to Inverness gathered a handful of interested watchers yesterday.
Among the audience was NHS Highland board member, Councillor David Alston and his council colleagues Bill Fernie and Margaret Davidson
And despite his reported reluctance to agree the committee’s use of the council chamber, Highland Council’s chief executive Steve Barron was also in the audience, accompanied by director of health and social care, Bill Alexander.
After the meeting, Mrs Davidson said she was impressed with the committee’s level of scrutiny.
She said: “There is a real knock-on effect through the system. Changes are needed to shift the balance into care in the community but they are forever trying to fill a black hole.”
She added: “If the budget is drifting off target, you can’t keep saying it is going to come in on target.”