First-Ever NHS Rich List Scandal

Hundreds of NHS executives are earning more than the Prime Minister, according to a report.

Despite failing to reduce waiting lists, nearly 1,700 fat-cat bureaucrats at NHS trusts were each given more than £100,000 a year.

With record sums already being poured in by taxpayers, the first-ever NHS Rich List found that 512 managers banked salaries higher than Sir Keir Starmer (£172,153).

 

Almost 300 received packages of £200,000 or more.

East Cheshire NHS Trust paid eight managers £100,000 or more despite being the worst-performing trust in percentage terms for seeing A&E patients within four hours.

It saw just 50.6 percent within the target time, well below the 78 percent anticipated.

Among the managers was the trust’s ‘director of people and culture’ and deputy CEO Rachael Charlton, who received a £ 367,500 package.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust also gave eight bosses £100,000 or more despite having the worst referral-to-treatment median waiting times. Chief medical director Catherine Walsh banked £387,500 in pay and perks.

The figures, covering more than 200 trusts for the 2023-24 financial year, will enrage the millions of patients stuck on waiting lists.

Approximately 6.25 million patients, relating to 7.42 million cases, are languishing on them, with almost 3 million waiting for more than 18 weeks.

The study by the TaxPayers’ Alliance will also fuel fears that much of the money lavished on health services is not making it to the front line and is instead helping to fund ‘non-jobs’ such as diversity roles.

Referring to Labour’s plan to hand 10 percent bonuses to NHS bosses whose trusts perform well, Tory health spokesman Edward Argar said: ‘The Labour Government plans to hand generous bonuses to NHS managers for simply doing what they are already paid to do as part of their jobs.

‘Patients will rightly be shocked, and asking why Labour aren’t focusing instead on making sure those who are already very well paid are delivering the results taxpayers have a right to expect. Diverting public funds into executive bonus schemes, instead of investing that money in frontline care for patients, is simply wrong.’

Shimeon Lee, who compiled the report, said: ‘Taxpayers will be appalled that while NHS patients face prolonged waiting lists and dismal A&E performance, hundreds of senior managers are pocketing six-figure pay packets.

‘This rich list shows that there are sky-high salaries for senior bureaucrats… that are impossible to justify.

‘If ministers are serious about getting the NHS back on track, they need to ensure that managers of poor-performing trusts aren’t being rewarded for failure.’

The study discovered that 1,694 senior managers got £100,000 or more in total remuneration across 224 trusts. Of these, 1,557 included a salary over £100,000. 

A further 296 got £200,000 or more while 17 got more than £300,000.

Ann James, the former CEO of University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, was paid a £382,500 salary. 

Her trust was rated 95th out of 136 in England for A&E waiting times.

Jonathan Brotherton, chief executive of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, received a pay package of £427,500, including a £262,500 salary. 

His trust was rated 128th of 149 for referral-to-treatment waiting times and 119th of 136 for A&E waiting times in England.

George Findlay, the chief executive of University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, was given a £32,500 bonus – on top of his £222,500 salary – despite it ranking 143th of 149 and 105th of 136 for the same targets.

By contrast, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust had the best referral-to-treatment waiting times. 

Chief executive Joe Rafferty got a total pay package of £257,500.

Another eyebrow-raising salary was the £257,000 that North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust gave its ‘chief people officer’, Louise Tibbert.

Despite directives to reduce the number of diversity programs, it was revealed in January that the NHS was employing one diversity staff member per week.

A recent poll discovered that almost two-thirds of voters back the idea of a new US-style ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ to cut billions of pounds of wasteful spending on bureaucracy and ‘non-jobs’ such as diversity and inclusion officers.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance study related to managerial positions at NHS trusts and not NHS England, the quango which operates the health service but which is being discarded by the Government.

A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘This Government is introducing tough new measures in relation to senior managers’ pay, to drive progress on cutting waiting lists.

‘The NHS should pay to attract top talent, but there can be no more rewards to failure.’

Politicians and NHS bosses are frequently rewarded for failure when most of us are unable to get a decent monetary increase for actually fulfilling our roles – sack all of them, do we actually need them?

This is what happens when you have managers paid enormous sums of money but no account for profit or loss.

Who are these managers? They weren’t there before – get rid of them and use the money on patient care. They are greedy pigs with their snouts in the trough.

These are eye watering figures considering our NHS is continually saying it is underfunded, that’s why it’s underfunded!

It’s appalling, these people come out of University and get right into management, right at the top. They spend twenty-odd years doing absolutely nothing, then stroll away with a lucrative pension.

Like all businesses, these people should be paid a lesser basic sum of money with bonuses if they reach realistic targets.