NHS boss behind £20bn cuts racks up expenses worth £5,000 a month
To order your own print of this or any other Mac cartoon, or a Pugh cartoon, visit mailpictures.newsprints.co.uk or call 020 7566 0360 THE Health Service chief who has ordered hospitals and trusts to save £20billion is blowing more than £5,000 a month on taxpayer-funded expenses.
Sir David Nicholson racked up almost £16,000 in three months on restaurant bills, hotel costs, first- class train tickets and a chauffeurdriven car.
He is receiving this generous travel allowance on top of a £210,000 a year salary, one of the highest in the public sector.
And already he has accrued a gold- plated pension worth £1.6million that will pay out retirement sums of £100,000 a year.
As chief executive of the NHS, Sir David is overseeing sweeping cuts to the Health Service and has ordered hospitals and trusts to collectively save £20billion by 2015. Many have resorted to rationing certain treatments such as IVF, cataract surgery and varicose vein operations to try to trim their budgets.
One reason his own spending is so high however is that despite his job primarily being based in Whitehall, Sir David lives nearly 200 miles away in Leeds.
Up until last year he was given an annual taxpayer-funded sum of just under £60,000 to pay for a rented flat in the capital where he stayed during the week.
Last May however he agreed to give up the flat and instead struck a deal with ministers for the state to cover necessary hotel bills and travel expenses.
Documents from the Department of Health show that £3,188 was spent between July and September last year on hotel and restaurant bills.
Another £8,090 was spent on a Government car and driver and a further £4,450 on rail fares.
The majority of his journeys were between London, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. Officials insist they are a necessary part of his job.
However, his expenses are far the higher than any of the 11 other most senior executives in the department, who spent just £19,000 between them.
The records point out that he has agreed to forgo his bonus for the past two years unlike many other executives who were handed between £ 5,000 and £10,000 on top of their annual salary.
Sir David, 56, who is divorced