09.11.15
Government to ‘rein in’ NHS with new guidance on hefty wages and payoffs
Chancellor George Osborne will issue guidance to NHS bodies on wages and press on with payoff caps after an investigation revealed that some healthcare bosses earned more than the prime minister in 2013-14.
The Daily Mail analysis, in association with the Taxpayers’ Alliance, looked at almost 6,000 responses to pinpoint the highest-earning public sector leaders in the country.
The second highest-earner in the whole public sector was an NHS chief who pocketed £850,000 last year on salaries and bonuses alone.
But the largest pay package – including wage rises, pension benefits and bonuses – was given to the chief executive of South Tees Hospitals NHS FT, Tricia Hart, who pocketed £1.26m in 2013.
Around the same time, South Tees was being investigated by Monitor due to poor performance and has racked up a deficit of £29m. In May 2014, Hart admitted that the fund’s deficit could spiral to £50m by the end of 2015-16.
But a spokesman for the trust said: “Professor Hart’s salary increase reflected her change from director of nursing to CEO. The increase in her pension pot was influenced by her securing a higher-paid role and her 40 years of service to the NHS.”
Yet several other NHS bosses were identified as earning nearly three times more than the prime minister, with five dentists earning a pay package of nearly £700,000 and a Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS FT director taking £236,000 home yearly.
A consider slice of these high earnings come from massive redundancy payoffs, pensions and bonuses – a part of which was found to be invested in private medical insurance.
Responding to the figures, the chancellor said: “Taxpayers’ money shouldn’t be used to pay for private medical insurance, gagging orders to cover up bad practice aren’t justified, and salaries above a certain level should be approved through a formal process and published to the public who foot the bill know what’s going on.
“I intend to issue new guidance sending a clear signal to public sector employers on pay and terms – setting out what I, and I suspect most taxpayers, see as unacceptable.
“What this shows is the scope that remains for savings at a time when budgets need to be trimmed. We’re determined to do all we can to rein in excess where we find it.
“So we will claw back redundancy payments for high earners who leave and then return to the public sector within a year – and change the law so that public sector payoffs are capped at £95,000 even for the highest-paid public servants.”
Consultation on the public sector exit payment cap only finished last week (3 November), but it is already understood to be going ahead.
Although the cap sparked some controversy amongst public sector agencies, massive redundancy bills have been a longstanding issue in the NHS.
The chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Dr Peter Carter, has previously dubbed the £2bn spent on NHS payoffs a “slap in the face” – particularly as staff face wage rise caps until the end of this Parliament.
(Top image c. Richard Stonehouse, PA Wire)