A private hospital will be paid up to £6m for three months work - even though the NHS Louisa Jordan remains unused.
The deal will also see the taxpayer foot the bill for the rent at Spire Murrayfield in Edinburgh.
Labour MSP Neil Findlay called for the facility to be nationalised.
When she was Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon signalled a move away from the NHS using private hospitals by saying they would only be used “at the margins”.
However, as a way of using spare capacity during the pandemic, NHS Scotland signed an agreement with Spire Healthcare for staff, facilities and equipment at the Murrayfield hospital.
The value of the contract to meet the extra demands of the health and social care sectors is £6m.
Critics have questioned whether the £6m is necessary given the availability of a new hospital in Glasgow.
The £43m Louisa Jordan is a temporary emergency critical care hospital set up to deal with the pandemic.
It was planned to have an initial capacity of 300 beds and the capability of expanding to over three times that number.
A fall in infection rates has meant the facility has not been required, but opposition politicians have said it should be used to address the backlog in operations and procedures.
Spire Healthcare reported a pre-tax profit of £9.6m for 2019, while revenues grew to £980m in the same period.
Findlay said: “This situation makes no sense whatsoever. Here we see a private health company being paid £6m over three months with the taxpayer picking up the tab for the rent on the building, meanwhile at the other end of the M8 the Louisa Jordan hospital, already paid for by the taxpayer, lies empty.
“Instead of pouring scarce public money into the pocket of privateers we would be far better nationalising Spire, bringing it fully into the NHS to help cope with the backlog of procedures that will be required after lockdown ends.”
Tom Waterson, chair of trade union UNISON Scotland’s health committee, said: “This is further evidence of the Scottish Government saying one thing on privatisation but in reality carrying on the mistakes of the past when it comes to the private sector. We must use the capacity that we currently have in the NHS to use taxpayers money more wisely.”
A spokesperson for NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) said: “This award was made during the rapidly developing stages of an unprecedented global pandemic to secure additional capacity and guaranteed access to private healthcare facilities during a critical stage.
“The contract cost was the maximum commitment and we anticipate that the final contract cost with Spire Healthcare will be substantially lower than the total potential contract value, as it is subject to the number of procedures carried out.
“In partnership with the Scottish Government, we continue to work 24/7 to ensure Scotland’s health and care sector has the resources and capacity it needs to fight Covid-19.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “NHS Louisa Jordan was constructed to ensure Scotland’s NHS had the capacity and resources to treat a potentially unknown number of COVID-19 patients during an unprecedented global pandemic. We are also making use of private hospitals, which have operating theatres, to perform surgery on cancer patients in a COVID-free environment. Both decisions were made with the goal of saving lives.
“As the First Minister has stated, we are currently considering whether we could use the Louisa Jordan to do some elective treatments while it remains open to be ready for any resurgence of the virus.
“The final cost of NHS patients being treated in private hospitals will be determined by factors including the number of beds reserved and the number of procedures carried out.”
