20.04.15
Chief execs receive 6% pay increase compared to frontline staff’s 1%
NHS chief executives received £35m in pay rises in 2013-14 – an average rise of 6%, compared to just 1% for frontline staff.
An investigation by the Daily Mail revealed that some executives earned more than £1m last year, while directors at a handful of the worst-performing hospitals received pay packages of up to £5,000 a day.
The average chief executive in England now takes home £185,255 in salary, while nearly 47 hospital bosses took home more than £400,000 last year.
Some executives were also found to be avoiding tax by funnelling their salary through their own companies, while others are taking advantage of a system originally put in place to help lower-paid nurses and other NHS workers stay working part-time, making it easier to get by on their pension. It has allowed bosses to take huge pension lump sums early by quietly 'retiring' for a day, working part-time for a month, then returning to their posts full-time.
For example, Peter Herring, chief executive of Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust, claimed a £252,000 tax-free lump sum by “retiring” for 24 hours, before returning to his original job. Professor Peter Latchford, chair of the trust, said the option to retire in this way “applies to all staff, including the chief executive”.
Sue James, chief executive of Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, received a £155,000 payout by doing the same. A footnote in the trust’s annual report explained: “Susan James retired on 30th March 2014 and was in receipt on [sic] NHS pension as at the 31st March 2014, she was subsequently re-employed by the Trust on the 1st April 2014.”
The revelations of the massive salaries for health bosses comes shortly after unions agreed to a pay deal for frontline staff that saw them receive a 1% pay rise.
Had the chief executives’ pay increased by 1% in line with frontline workers, instead of the 6% revealed by the Daily Mail, the NHS could have saved £28.5m last year alone – enough to pay for more than 1,300 nurses for a year.
Following the revelations, the three major political parties, along with the Royal College of Nursing and Royal College of Physicians, all called for an inquiry.
Professor Jane Dacre, chair of the Royal College of Physicians said: “Transparency in the NHS, including transparency of remuneration, is vital to ensure accountability to the patients we serve.
“An independent review would help to ensure that NHS CEO salaries are fair.
“It is important that we appoint high quality chief executives in NHS trusts and their focus should always be on standards of patient care.
“They should be rewarded for the difficult role that they have taken on, but this should relate to the standard of patient care that they provide and the size of the organisation they run.”
Dr Peter Carter, chief executive and general secretary of the RCN, was shocked that bosses continue to receive such “vastly inflated financial rewards” at a time finances are in crisis.
“Nursing staff will struggle to comprehend that their bosses have had an average 6% pay rise when they are only getting 1% this year, having seen their pay fall further and further behind the cost of living over the last few years,” he said.
“Senior managers such as chief executives do important and highly valued work, but they should not be getting disproportionate pay rises and bonuses while frontline staff continue to struggle.”
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