NHS chiefs get £80 million in payouts

A merger of local organisations saw senior managers taking home average payouts of £350,000, with one receiving almost £1 million.

And the Liberal Democrats say the true cost of the reforms could be as much as £140 million if primary care trust redundancies are included as well as those at strategic health authorities.

The huge costs came as the NHS was clawing its way out of a £500 million deficit which caused cuts to frontline jobs and services.

Last year's reduction in the number of strategic health authorities - which co-ordinate care between hospitals and community services - from 28 to ten was meant to save the taxpayer £250 million by cutting the number of managers.

But figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed that 764 people were made redundant, at a cost of £82.9million.

A total of 61 senior managers lost their jobs, receiving an average of £358,355 each. One chief executive took early retirement and was given a payout of £900,000.

The Lib Dems said last year's reorganisation of primary care trusts - reduced from 303 to 152 - cost another £60 million, bringing the total bill to £140 million.

Health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "This is the price we're paying for the endless contradictory reforms and botched restructuring.

"This Government created one set of PCTs and then abolished and amalgamated them. If they'd got it right in the first place they could have saved a lot of money.

"All this money which is draining out of the system could and should have been used on patient care.

"When people see cuts in services happening in their area they find it hard to take."

Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley added: "These are the kind of costs that result from endless reorganisations. Not one penny contributes to patients' health."

The £900,000 was given to David Johnson, chief executive of the former North and East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire SHA which was merged into the Yorkshire and the Humber SHA last July.

The organisation's finance boss John Grimes also received early retirement and was paid £302,548.

Scarborough's Tory MP, Robert Goodwill, said the payments were "obscene" when one local trust was axing treatments.

He added: "£900,000 isn't a pay-off, most people would call that a lottery win."

One PCT chief executive received £480,000. Christopher Town was axed as chief executive of Greater Peterborough PCT even though it was £2.9 million in debt.

Jim Keegan of Managers in Partnership, the union for senior NHS officials, defended the payouts.

"People in senior and not-so-senior positions have been made redundant," he said. "There are costs attached to that."

NHS Employers, which represents trusts and SHAs, said it had reformed redundancy rules so payouts will not be so large.

"The payments are on such a scale because historically people who were made redundant were eligible to have their pensions paid early and topped up by up to ten years' service if they were over 50," he said.