Colchester hospital trust pays out £260,000 for a temp (From Gazette)

Colchester hospital trust pays out £260,000 for a temp

9:00pm Saturday 4th September 2010 in

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Staff and hospital governors have criticised the huge amount paid to hire a temporary director for Colchester’s hospital trust.

Last year, Sue Barnett, interim director of operational performance at Colchester General Hospital and Essex County Hospital cost the NHS between £260,000 and £265,000, a report has revealed.

That is £100,000 more than Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust ’s overall boss earned – and £120,000 more than Prime Minister David Cameron’s Government salary.

The trust says the enormous amount it pays for Mrs Barnett is justified because she has helped it improve since NHS regulator, Monitor, condemned local hospitals as poorly-run and failing.

A statement says: “Along with many other colleagues, she played an important role in transforming the trust’s performance during 2009/10, helping to deliver an ambitious programme of improvements, which resulted in an excellent operational performance for 2009/10 and a surplus of £2.3million.”

As a temporary worker, employed on a month-by-month basis, Mrs Barnett’s payments include VAT, the statement adds.

It also points out she does not get paid for holidays, sick pay or have pension contributions covered and is on a much shorter notice period than permanent staff.

Trust governor Des McCarron is one of many who are outraged by the amount she is being paid.

He said: “Speaking personally, I don’t see how anyone can be worth £260,000 a year. It’s ridiculous.

“That money would pay for ten basic nurses. If I was a patient, I know where I would prefer the money to go.”

He was backed by Isaac Ferneyhough, Unison union secretary for the trust.

He said: “It’s shocking really that a temporary member of the executive team can be paid so much – especially when we are in challenging financial times, when staff redundancies are a possibility.

“It’s almost double what the chief executive gets. I hope we are getting value for money.”

Details of Mrs Barnett’s earnings were revealed in the hospital trust’s annual report.

The trust’s spokesman said directors were paid the going rate for an NHS foundation trust.

He added: “Clearly, we are a complex 24/7 organisation, with 3,500 staff. It is not inappropriate for our leaders’ salaries to reflect this in a year when we performed strongly.”

The report shows Rob Bowman, director of workforce, earned between £95,000 and £100,000 last year. Mr Bowman was a director when it was condemned as failing and put into special measures, last December.

Julie Firth, director of nursing, who was appointed after the damning Monitor report, earned between £80,000 and £85,000 last year – twice what her predecessor, Denise Hagel, was paid.

Other directors included Andrew Armour, head of finance, who got between £70,000 and £75,000.