NHS pays American executive £100,000 just to live in London (on top of his £185,000-a-year salary)

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An American executive is being paid £100,000 a year by the NHS to meet the cost of living in London, it emerged last night.

The £8,400-a-month accommodation deal for Chan Wheeler, the new commercial director of the NHS, is on top of his £185,000-a-year salary.

His "eye-watering" deal also includes a Civil Service pension, two business class flights to the U.S., a relocation package of up to £35,000 a year and a possible bonus.

It comes after the number of midwives fell last year for the first time under Labour and after hospitals up and down the country were forced to lay off staff and cut services to clear a £500million debt.

Mr Wheeler has already built up a fortune working in the U.S. private health sector, making £4million from a sale of stock options.

But he denies claims that he benefited from fraud during his previous job with an American health insurance giant. The allegations are the subject of a lawsuit in the U.S.

Mr Wheeler is understood to be using the monthly housing allowance to pay for a three-bedroom apartment in Knightsbridge. MPs from the main parties are furious at the pay package.

Labour's Frank Dobson, the former Health Secretary - whose parliamentary questions revealed Mr Wheeler's remuneration - said: "He gets paid about twice as much a month as nurses who live in London get in a year to help with the extra cost of living.

"Many NHS workers are finding house prices out of reach in London, but we seem to be helping an already well-paid American commercial director of the NHS to live for free."

The package was yesterday described as "eyewatering" by Conservative health spokesman Stephen O'Brien.

"He is being paid an expat's package, but getting the advantage of a Civil Service pension," he said. "It looks like the worst of both worlds for the taxpayer."

As commercial director of the NHS, Mr Wheeler is pushing through new services such making GP health care available at supermarkets and gyms.