THE boss of Solihull Hospital is on a list of biggest public sector “fat cats” – earning an estimated £40,000 more than the Prime Minister.Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust chief executive Mark Goldman is ranked 136th out of 806 UK public sector managers who earn more than £150,000.
This is despite it being marked down for two years running for the quality of care it provides by an NHS watchdog.
Last year Mr Goldman got £235,000-£240,000 compared to Gordon Brown’s £197, 689. This includes the MP's salary of £64,766. He was 324th.
This was an estimated 4.4 per cent increase on the previous year, when he was paid £225,000 - £235,000, a TaxPayers' Alliance report found. The trust would not release exact earnings.
And Ian Cunliffe, the medical director for surgery, saw his earnings jump from £150,000 to £205,000 last year.
This was a salary of £140,000 to £145,000 and “other remuneration” of £60,000 – £65,000, making him the 264th highest paid.
In that year the trust was downgraded for the overall quality of care it provided by NHS watchdogs.
It went from excellent, to good the next year and then fair last year. It was rated among the “least well performing” for maternity in January 2008.
Its quality of financial management has been rated excellent, the top score, for the last four years.
The medical director for medicine, Hugh Rayner, got £115,000 - £120,000 and “other remuneration” of £50,000-£55,000.
Mick Laverty, chief executive of Advantage West Midlands, charged with regenerating towns and cities, went from £155,344 to £179,058.
This included car allowance, “performance pay” of £11,689 and pension costs of £29,988.
All salaries were for 2008/09, so were agreed before the recession hit.
John O’Connell, policy analyst at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Executive pay in the public sector is completely divorced from the reality of Britain’s fiscal crisis.
“Ordinary families, struggling to make ends meet in the recession, don’t pay their taxes to fund gold-plated deals for public sector fat cats.
“All parties now agree that excessive pay packages must be tackled but the time for action is now, not next year.
“Taxpayers want genuine transparency, accountability and restraint in setting top public sector pay.”
