healthmedicinet

The highest-paid executive earned £340,000 — almost 16 times more than ward
nurses, who earn as little as £21,388-a-year. Eleven high earners have been
paid more than £250,000 each. The true figures are likely to be far higher
as dozens of hospital trusts failed to respond.

Dr Carter said hard-pressed nursing staff “often feel undervalued, especially
if senior NHS staff are not experiencing the same pay restraints”.

The number of NHS staff paid more than £100,000 has increased in the past year
at almost half of the 75 trusts surveyed. In some parts of England, the
number of high-earners has risen by more than 50 per cent.

Last year 17 NHS hospitals were censured for dangerously low staffing levels
amid growing concern about the safety and dignity of patients.

At Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which was condemned for its
“appalling” lack of care after one of the worst health scandals in living
memory, a total of 85 staff are paid more than £100,000, up from 79 the year
before.

Darren Cattell, the trust’s interim finance director, was paid £340,000 last
year — almost £1,475-a-day — as the trust headed towards financial meltdown.

He left in May, four months before a team of consultants were sent in to
investigate the trust’s £20?million deficit. Last week the trust went into
administration and on Monday it will begin the bidding process for services
to be taken over by other NHS trusts or the private sector.

The trust’s medical director was paid between £225,000 and £230,000. A
spokesman said the trust had been forced to employ expensive interim
directors to help turn the scandal-hit hospital around.

Julie Bailey, whose mother died in Stafford hospital and who later formed the
Cure the NHS campaign group, said: “We have lost sight of what’s important,
people are being rewarded for failure.”

At Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, which is being investigated by police
after the deaths of a number of babies, 121 staff are paid more than
£100,000.

The highest paid individual was a consultant who earned £280,000, while Tony
Halsall, the trust’s former chief executive who resigned in February last
year, was given a £225,000 pay-off. A spokesman said that pay was “in line”
with other NHS trusts throughout the country.

Many of the high earners are at trusts which are currently being investigated
for having high mortality rates. These include Basildon and Thurrock,
Buckinghamshire Healthcare, Burton Hospitals, Colchester Hospital, East
Lancashire Hospitals and North Cumbria, which have 274 staff on six-figure
salaries between them.

At University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust, 384 staff were paid six-figure
salaries last year, almost half of whom earned more than the Prime Minister.

But last October the Care Quality Commission warned that a shortage of nurses
at Southampton General Hospital was “placing people at risk”. Inspectors
heard staff were “run ragged” with some patients waiting hours for their
meals

A spokesman for the trust said levels of pay reflected the “high number of
senior and experienced clinical staff”.

Trusts said that the majority of high earners were senior clinical staff. The
average consultant is paid £84,000, but can receive an additional £76,000 a
year in “clinical excellence awards”, which critics claim are given as a
matter of course.

At many trusts the number of staff on six-figures rose significantly. The
number at Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust increased from 20 to 31
in the past year, while at City Hospital Foundation Trust in Sunderland, 165
staff earned more than £100,000 — a rise of 10 per cent.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “Many of these staff are senior
consultants and their pay reflects responsibilities and clinical skills.
However, pay restraint is essential right across the public sector, and the
NHS cannot be exempt from that. We have cut spending on managers and back
office administration costs, and the number of admin staff has fallen by
over 18,000.”