An interim director brought in to take charge of the finances at Leicester's hospitals is being paid £1,250 a day, it has been revealed.
The money is not being paid directly to the director, Peter Hollinshead, but to a company of which he is a director.
The payments bring the total spent on three temporary directors to more than £500,000 in the past seven years.
Care Minister Norman Lamb, who was in Oadby on Friday, described the figure as "worrying".
"We talk about pressure on health service finances and to hear about so much money, which should be going on patient care, being spent on interim directors is worrying."
Union officials and health campaigners said they were staggered by the figure and have criticised the payments being made to companies rather than individuals.
Carole Brown, from Unison, said: "When a 1 per cent pay rise is being offered to our members, these amounts are obscene.
"With payments being made to companies it means tax on contributions which go to help fund the NHS are not being made. This needs to be investigated."
Health campaigner Zuffar Haq, who is also a member of the Leicester Mercury Patients' Panel, said: "I am staggered at the amounts of money being paid in this way.
"It is totally unacceptable to take this kind of money away from patient care."
Mr Hollinshead began work at Leicester's hospitals on January 20 as interim director of financial strategy.
He took over from Andrew Seddon, who went on "special leave" a few months after the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust announced a deficit of £39.8 million.
Mr Seddon has since been appointed group financial director at Marie Stopes International, a family planning organisation.
Kate Bradley, director of human resources at the trust, said: "The remuneration for Peter Hollinshead, interim director of finance, is paid to the trading company Brandhill Financial Services.
"The rate of £1,250 per day is a commercial short-term rate covering all away-from-home expenses, travel and business overheads.
"As a result of the payments being made to a trading company, the trust does not incur any additional costs, such as tax, national insurance and pension payments.
"In addition, the trust pays no holiday, sick pay, training or other standard entitlements.
"More importantly and, given our financial situation, we need the best interim on the market until we recruit to the substantive post."
The appointment of a permanent finance director is expected to be announced next week.
Two years ago, the trust paid out about £190,000 to a firm for temporary chief executive Jim Birrell. He was at the helm from July 2, 2012 to December 20, 2012, after the departure of Malcolm Lowe-Lauri.
Prior to that, the trust paid the management company Durrow £173,750 for Derek Smith.
He was brought in after chief executive Peter Reading "took early retirement" in 2007 after the collapse of a £711 million private finance scheme which was to have transformed the city's hospitals.
