More than 60 London hospital chiefs are earning salaries that exceed the Prime Minister's £142,500, according to an analysis of annual accounts. Some of the high earners include a chief executive who received a £50,000 'golden hello' to relocate from Australia and an agency finance director who cost £275,000 for less than a year's work.
Among the most striking cases is Mark Ogden, the former chief financial officer at Barts Health, who was allowed to claim up to £36,000 a year for rent. In one year his total pay package topped £280,000, outstripping his chief executive, while the trust accumulated the largest debt in NHS history. Ogden earned £545,000 in salary over two and a half years, plus £92,657 in rent allowances. A fellow Barts executive, Len Richards, received £58,700 in accommodation costs over 18 months.
Imperial College Healthcare chief executive Tracey Batten was London's best-paid NHS boss, with £342,500 in 2014/15, including a one-off £49,860 relocation payment from Australia. Her salary was £90,000 more than her predecessor's. She has been at the centre of a row over proposed A&E services downgrade at Charing Cross Hospital.
Trusts with multiple executives earning more than the PM include University College London Hospitals (seven), Barts and Guy's and St Thomas' (six each), and the Royal Free, King's College Hospital, and Chelsea and Westminster (five each). At West Middlesex Hospital, the departed chief Dame Jacqueline Docherty cost almost £200,000, and interim finance director Jonathan Molyneux received £280,000. Chelsea and Westminster paid former chief Tony Bell his full £225,000 salary after he left following a damning inspection.
