A GP has clashed with leaders of a health trust after revealing they spent £3.5 million on private consultancy fees in 30 months.

Dr Sunil Angris told North Staffordshire Primary Care Trust directors that fellow doctors and healthcare professionals were "shocked, alarmed and enraged" by the sum, which he obtained using a Freedom of Information request.

And he was furious that they had failed to give a breakdown on what the money had been used for, despite several written requests to the PCT which runs the NHS in Newcastle and the Moorlands.

Dr Angris, who practises in Waterhouses and Alton, wants to know why the board feels the expenditure is justified at a time when frontline clinical services for patients are being cut back at all levels.

He also asked PCT chairman George Wiskin whether he could recollect approving the expenditure.

Mr Wiskin said as the request had been made under the Freedom of Information Act, he was not allowed to reply verbally to Dr Angris but would send a written response.

Dr Angris, recently appointed a member of North Staffordshire's new GP commissioning consortium which will replace the PCT in 2013, has said he will continue to hold the board to account for the way it spends its money over the next two years.

The GP said: "This money would have paid for 100 average grade nurses, 35 to 50 doctors or 350 hip operations.

"I can understand the reason for the NHS occasionally turning to the expertise of external consultants, but only extremely rarely and not on this scale."

"Despite my requests, the PCT has yet to provide me with written evidence of the value or health benefits these consultancies provide."

He told the directors: "I have just watched you criticise voluntary organisations you fund for not giving you evidence about outcomes – yet you don't ask for the same evidence from consultancies you spend millions of pounds with."

He also complained that it had taken the PCT 14 weeks to answer his request on the overall sums involved.

Despite several invitations to reply, Mr Wiskin said: "I am forbidden from being drawn into an oral debate about this, but when you get my written reply, I am confident it will reassure you."

Health trusts have used private consultants on projects such as reviews of services and analysis of health figures.

Dr Angris's comments were backed by North Staffordshire NHS campaigning group Healthwatch.

Co-ordinator Ian Syme said: "The NHS is the biggest employer in the UK, so surely there must be expertise within its ranks to carry out such a specialist role.

"Even if it needs an external view of local care, it can use other trusts to guarantee independence rather that turn to the private sector."

And Jenny Harvey, secretary of the North Staffordshire community services branch of Unison, said:"The money spent by the NHS nationally on outside management consultants has gone up and up, with not much being delivered."

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