Anger at former NHS boss’s £120k salary – despite having no job

Holyrood: Former health secretary voices his dismay at situation

The former boss of NHS Tayside is pocketing a chief executive salary despite being removed from the post more than a month ago.

Lesley McLay was effectively dismissed from the role and the board the day before she went on sick leave, in the wake of fresh revelations about Tayside’s finances.

However, she remains an NHS employee without a job, Holyrood’s public audit committee heard yesterday – and receives a salary of £120,000£125,000.

That means she has earned £10,000 since being replaced as CEO on April 5.

Paul Gray, the chief executive of NHS Scotland, said all employees in the service are entitled to full pay for a period while on sick leave.

Ms McLay was signed off sick by a doctor the morning after she was removed as Tayside’s accountable officer, but before the start of the disciplinary process, MSPs were told.

That process is due to begin whenever Ms McLay returns to work, Mr Gray said.

Raising the prospect of the former CEO being redeployed in the service, the civil servant added: “At the moment she doesn’t have a job today because she is off sick.

“But when she is able to return to work then we will agree with her what her future employment status should be and that will be done appropriately.

“It is important that we go through a proper employment process with every employee and I do know of some situations in which an employee who has not been able to fulfil one role has nevertheless been offered an alternative role that better meets their skills.”

Alex Neil, the former health secretary, suggested it was “one rule for chief executives and a different rule for everyone else”.

The SNP MSP said there seemed to be a “two-tier system” that allows senior executives who are not up to the job to stay in the organisation “possibly on a protected salary”.

“You can see the concern that there is here, where somebody is being dismissed from the job they’re in,” he said.

“(They) appear to be possibly be given alternative employment, possibly getting a severance payment, possibly before any of that happens could be off sick for up to a year, at taxpayers’ expense, obviously.

“That’s employment law, I realise that, but these circumstances really create a lot of cynicism amongst other employees at the health service, particularly those further down the rung, who don’t get this kind of treatment.”

“This creates a lot of cynicism amongst other employees at the health service, particularly those further down the rung.

ALEX NEIL

Picture: Gareth Jennings. Lesley McLay has been on sick leave since she was dismissed as NHS Tayside chief executive.