Salary study fuels row over NHS fat cats

Half a dozen chief executives of NHS trusts are being paid more than the Prime Minister, according to a salary survey published today. The review, by Income Data Services, underlines Labour and Liberal Democrat complaints about the rocketing costs of administration, which have risen by more than pounds 1bn since 1989-90.

The survey shows the largest pay rise for a chief executive was 30.4 per cent and the largest pay package went to the chief executive of the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, John Cooper, who received a total of pounds 118,000 in March 1996.

Yesterday the trust's press office said he is now on a pay and perks package of pounds 122,000 and is responsible for a pounds 200m budget. John Major's salary is pounds 101,557, and he is responsible for a budget of pounds 300bn.

The IDS survey shows the chief executives of another five NHS trusts are paid more than the Prime Minister: at Guy's and St Thomas's; Wellhouse; Royal Liverpool; St George's; and Camden and Islington.

In all, eight chief executives received pay increases of more than 20 per cent last year, with nearly 60 receiving rises over 10 per cent.

"The highest increase of all, at 30.4 per cent, was paid to the chief executive of Alexandra Healthcare ... No explanation for this rise is available, as the trust proved unwilling to supply any further information."

The report noted that some trust directors were also being paid very well.

Chris Smith, Labour's health spokesman, said last night that the average 6.2-per-cent rise for chief executives contrasted with a doctor's increase of 2.5 per cent and a rise of up to 3 per cent for nurses in the same year. "This is yet another example of the Government washing its hands of what is happening in the NHS. Stephen Dorrell [Secretary of State] has sat back and allowed the pay of many trust chief executives to gallop out of control."

The Liberal Democrats said at the beginning of the month that they were committed to cutting unnecessary bureaucracy. Paddy Ashdown disclosed that Commons library data had shown that "the total real-terms administrative, clerical and management costs of the NHS in Britain have risen by 63 per cent since 1990 - over pounds 1bn in today's money. Bureaucracy now consumes pounds 2.9bn of NHS resources".