Suspended NHS staff in Scotland have been paid almost £6million in the past four years, it has been reported.
Nearly 1,000 employees have been paid their full salary while suspended.
Since 2012, doctors, nurses and admin staff have missed 90,000 working days – with some suspended for more than a year.
NHS Grampian suspended the former Queen’s Surgeon Professor Zygmunt Krukowski from his job in May 2015 following a probe into his practices at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
His colleague Dr Wendy Craig was also suspended by the health board.
Both quit NHS Grampian in April, with Prof Krukowski understood to have retired, while Dr Craig is now working in the north-east of England.
They were among eight consultants who were last month cleared of any wrongdoing following an investigation into the conduct of medics at the north-east’s flagship hospital.
The General Medical Council probe – which lasted nearly two years – is understood to have cost NHS Grampian about £5million.
Last night, experts said the NHS should not be expected to pay out so much to people who are not working and called on the Government to speed up the suspension process.
Scottish Tory health spokesman Donald Cameron said: “In an organisation the size of the NHS, you would expect instances of staff suspension.
“However, this number does seem very high – and there is a clear cost to the taxpayer.
“The NHS is under severe financial pressure and simply can’t afford to be paying out millions to staff who stay at home.
“This is something the Scottish Government should look at to ensure staff are only suspended on full pay when it’s absolutely necessary.”
Irenee O’Neill, general secretary of the Independent Federation of Nursing in Scotland said: “The fundamental problem with suspension in NHS Scotland is the time it takes to get a final decision made.
“Most health boards are catastrophically slow at moving things forward.
“It is time managers and people from HR were held to account and not allow cases to go on for months and months.
“I have seen families and nurses destroyed when they have been on suspension because of the time it takes.”