Hospital Boss Pay Hikes Enough For 1,300 Nurses

Inflation-busting pay rises for hospital bosses totalling £35m could have paid for more than 1,300 new nurses, according to Sky News' calculations.

NHS executives received an average wage hike last year of 6% with the total bill rising from £570m in 2013 to £605m.

Had their pay increased by 1% in line with nurses, the NHS could have saved £28.5m last year alone - enough to pay for more than 1,300 new nurses.

A Daily Mail investigation found some executives earned more than £1m last year, and even at hospitals with the worst standards of care directors received pay packages worth up to £5,000 per day.

The figures emerged after the Mail carried out an audit of trust accounts and found exploitation of the NHS pension scheme by some senior executives.

The results are "on the scale of the MPs' expenses scandal", one government adviser told the paper.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt vowed to launch an investigation, even though NHS England told Sky News "pay is set by the Department of Health" and is then awarded to executives by individual NHS trusts.

The "fat cat" accusations come as the Labour Party launches an "NHS week", claiming the Conservatives will double the pace of cuts if they are re-elected and cannot say where promised extra spending will come from.

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Labour also says it has conducted a survey of Tory councillors on future funding of the NHS which shows more than a quarter are willing to admit they support further charging and privatisation.

The Daily Mail investigation found:

:: Nearly 1,000 NHS bosses now earn £100,000 or more a year when their pension contributions are taken into account.

:: Despite the funding crisis, the number of bosses with pay packages worth more than the Prime Minister rose by 30% last year - to nearly 600.

:: Nearly 50 hospital bosses earned more than £400,000 last year, putting them in the same pay league as top City traders.

:: Some health chiefs are using a common tax avoidance tactic by channelling their huge salaries through their own companies.

The newspaper reported the average NHS chief executive in England now takes home £185,255 in salary, higher than David Cameron's £142,500 pay.

Some have used a loophole to take huge pension lump sums early, by secretly "quitting" for a day, working part-time for a month, then returning to their posts full-time on the same huge salary as before.

Other bosses who channel their huge salaries through private companies pay corporation tax at 21% rather than top-rate income tax at 40%.

Promising an inquiry, Mr Hunt said: "A future Conservative government would ask the Department of Health to look at the Mail's investigation in detail to ensure taxpayers are getting the best value for money from managers who must always deliver the best patient care.

"People who do a good job for patients should be paid fairly, but the NHS is a public service and too often high executive pay has been awarded as a matter course, not because of exceptional performance.

"Our tough new inspection regime shines a light on leadership, and our redundancy payment cap is already eliminating some of the worst abuses of the system that grew up under Labour."

Andy Burnham, Labour's shadow health secretary, also called for an investigation.

He told Sky News: "If there has been any abuse it has to be tackled.

"This is excessive at a time when we are asking other NHS staff to exercise restraint.

"There has to be fairness top to bottom in the National Health Service.

"Morale is already very low in the NHS and this isn't going to help."

NHS staff, who had been denied a 1% pay rise, must find it "utterly galling", added Mr Burnham.

Pensions expert Dr Ros Altmann, an adviser to David Cameron tipped for a peerage and ministerial role if the Tories win the election, said NHS bosses are "taking advantage of loopholes in the exceptionally generous NHS Pension Scheme".

She added: "It is outrageous, it is so wrong. The bosses who have access to top financial advice are milking the system. The rules would never have been intended to be used in this manner.

"They think they can get away with it just because the law allows it. But morally it is questionable. It is like the MPs' expenses scandal.

"Just as politicians felt entitled to claim money they should not receive so senior managers in the NHS feel entitled to this money just because it is not against the rules. It is not the right thing to do."