£125k-a-year boss of NHS board quits after 3 months off
THE chief of a scandal-hit health board has quit her £125,000 post – after three months on paid sick leave.
Lesley McLay had not been at her post of chief executive of NHS Tayside since April, after it was disclosed that the board bent its own rules by diverting more than £2million from charity funds to cover core running costs.
The board’s chairman Professor John Connell quit the same month after former Health Secretary Shona Robison asked for his resignation.
NHS Tayside yesterday confirmed Mrs McLay has left the organisation.
But neither the board nor the Scottish Government would say if she received a pay-off, sparking anger from Holyrood politicians amid growing concerns about ‘secret Scotland’ attempts to hide politically sensitive information from the public.
A number of other chief executives have left failing health boards with six-figure payouts in recent years and Jenny Marra, convener of Holyrood’s public audit committee, said there should be no ‘golden goodbye’ for Mrs McLay.
Earlier this year it emerged that NHS Tayside took more than £2million from its endowment fund – which is made up of donations from the public or bequests in wills – to cover running costs such as IT systems.
The health board, which was bailed out with a Scottish Government loan of £33.2million last year, was reported to have used the endowment fund when ‘faced with a funding deficit’.
Miss Marra, a Labour MSP, said: ‘The committee could not have been clearer as we worked through the mess that has been created at NHS Tayside that there should be no golden goodbyes or golden handshakes for people leaving the health board who helped to put it in such a poor condition.
‘Lesley McLay was at the helm of the organisation when it was getting into difficulty and we were of the view that any generous severance package would be wholly inappropriate.
‘We need greater clarity from NHS Tayside and if it turns out there has been some form of golden handshake then we will pursue this matter through the committee.’
Public spending watchdog Audit Scotland has delivered a series of damning verdicts on NHS Tayside’s finances and the running of the health board, which Mrs McLay – a former nurse – took over in 2014.
Professor Connell stood down after Miss Robison wrote to him asking him to resign.
She also said Mrs McLay’s position was ‘untenable’ after being forced to exercise ministerial powers of intervention. The focus on any form of severance deal for Mrs McLay comes as other NHS chief executives received substantial payouts when they left under controversial circumstances in recent years.
Richard Carey pocketed a £255,789 ‘compensation payment’ when he retired from NHS Grampian in 2014 after being embroiled in a staffing controversy.
James Barbour received £100,000 when he left NHS Lothian in 2012 only a month after the board was criticised by then Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon for manipulating waiting times.
Next month Audit Scotland is expected to deliver its latest report on NHS Tayside, which is
‘We need clarity from board’
now run by Malcolm Wright, who is also chief executive of NHS Grampian but is due to retire in December.
NHS Tayside said: ‘Lesley McLay, former chief executive, left the board on July 31 2018.’
Since the NHS Tayside scandal emerged in March, the board’s director of finance Lindsay Bedford has retired.
The health board’s management practices were recently criticised in an independent report by Grant Thornton UK LLP which found ‘weaknesses’ in its financial arrangements.
NHS Tayside had ‘poor financial management and governance practices’ that were not in line with the ‘behaviours, expectations and guidance appropriate to those of a public sector organisation’.
The charity cash was used to cover board spending on routine services such as maternity and child health.