‘Obscene’ £300,000 deal for NHS boss

Peter Reading was paid more than £230,000 in the 12 months to March as the interim chief executive at the Doncaster and Bassetlaw NHS trust.

The deal included an additional fee of £59,000, plus VAT, paid to an agency for arranging his services, taking the total to £300,000 – more than the costs of employing NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson whose remuneration package last year was worth £280,000.

Last night there was furious criticism of the deal which comes as the NHS carries out its biggest-ever efficiency drive, leaving the Doncaster trust with a savings target of £16m in 2011-12.

Dr Reading’s salary was higher than any other chief executive in Yorkshire – although last night trust officials claimed its real value was significantly lower.

Rianne Johnson, of the trust’s Unison branch, said the union was disgusted over the “obscene” amount of public money involved.

“Peter Reading was paid more in a day than a cleaner earns in a month and he was paid more in a month than a nurse earns in a year,” she said.

“This information will further anger our members in Doncaster and Bassetlaw hospitals who have taken a pay freeze and are facing threats to jobs and services and attacks on their terms and conditions and their pensions.”

She urged hospital bosses who made the award to consider their positions and called on Dr Reading to hand half his pay back.

Bassetlaw MP John Mann branded the deal “outrageous” and called for the agency fee to be repaid and urged the trust’s chairman to consider his position.

“This would have paid for a lot of nurses and it would have kept the nursery open at our hospital,” he said. “There should be a public inquiry into why they have paid this via a private company.”

Dr Reading is due to leave the trust shortly following the appointment of a permanent chief executive.

He stepped down as hospital boss in Leicester in 2007 and now runs his own consulting company but officials say the agency fee did not go to his firm.

Joe Barnes, the deputy trust board chairman, said he had been an “outstanding” appointment.

The remuneration had been negotiated with a specialist agency dealing in interim placements which was paid a “facility fee” for its work identifying suitable candidates and arranging interviews at very short notice due to the illness of his predecessor.

“This agency has no connection with Peter Reading other than that he is on the agency’s books,” he said.

“The terms of this arrangement means that we pay no national insurance and no employer’s contribution to pension. In the NHS, this is calculated at 24 per cent.

“On top of this, we pay no annual leave or sick leave, and no expenses, even for work-related trips. To compare like with like, therefore, his remuneration is an equivalent salary of, at most, £178,600.”

The trust’s income is likely to shrink by £7m to £322m in the year to March as the squeeze on public finances hits home. One of its key aims is to reduce the costs of agency medical staff by £2.4m, while management costs are expected to be cut by £500,000.