‘Fat cat’ pay of NHS bosses
Quango chiefs criticised for salaries higher than the PM’s as health service struggles with huge deficit
MORE than 600 NHS quango chiefs are now on six-figure salaries, with a doubling in the number earning more than the Prime Minister in just three years, new figures show.
Many of the highest earners have made repeated demands on govern- ment to increase NHS funding as it battles against its worst financial deficit in history.
But figures uncovered by The Daily Telegraph show that the nine main health quangos are now employing 628 officials on salaries of at least £100,000. They include 93 taking home more than Theresa May’s £149,440 salary – up from 48 at their predecessor bodies three years earlier.
Among the highest paid is the NHS deputy medical director, earning around £225,000 a year.
Dr Jonathan Fielden is currently suspended from work and banned from contact with patients, after being arrested on suspicion of voyeurism.
The findings come as the NHS attempts to make £22 billion in savings. On Friday Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, who earns around £195,000, told an audience: “We do need capital; we’ve said that from the get-go.”
The previous day, Prof Sir Mike Richards, the chief inspector of hospitals paid around £240,000, said the NHS was standing on a “burning platform”.
Last night, patients groups said the scale of the spending on salaries was “truly shocking”.
Joyce Robins, of Patient Concern, said the NHS was spending far too much on “spin operations and PR offensives” that diverted much-needed resources from the front line.
She added: “These figures are incredible and so depressing. So many nurses are rushed off their feet, so many patients treated in corridors and yet there are hundreds of fat cats being paid eyewatering sums, to waste money in meetings and committees.”
Nursing leaders said the numbers on such high salaries could not be justified when the NHS was under such strain.
Janet Davies, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said the fig- ures were an “insult” to nursing staff who had seen pay fall 14 per cent behind the cost of living since 2010.
Many of the most expensive organisations are new structures, which were set up in 2013 following pledges to “streamline” the running of the NHS.
Public Health England (PHE) has 244 senior managers on six-figure salaries, with its best paid employee, Prof Frances Gould, earning between £235,000 and £240,000 as lead public health microbiologist for the North East.
NHS England has 187 senior officials earning at least £100,000. The highest
paid is Dr Fielden, 53, earning between £220,000 and £225,000, and currently suspended following his arrest.
The organisation, which has 5,017 employees, recently came under fire after its “NHS identity team” ordered every hospital to alter its logos.
The Care Quality Commission, which has 3,261 staff – up from 2,139 three years ago – now has 18 officials on sixfigure salaries, a rise from 11 in 2013-14.
Health Education England has 43 managers on six-figure salaries. At the Department of Health, there are 18 officials on six-figure salaries.
A PHE spokesman said the organisation’s purpose was “to keep the nation safe from infectious disease and improve the public’s health”. He added that it had cut its costs to the taxpayer by more than £145 million since 2013.
Chris Day, the CQC’s director of engagement – who is paid between £95,000 and £100,000 – said the organisation was “transparent about our spending on salaries”.
An NHS England spokesman said: “We now have far lower administrative costs than France, Germany or any of our major competitors. That’s unsurprising as we’ve cut the running costs of the NHS by 50 per cent since 2010, and are going to take another 25 per cent out over the next few years.”