Directors of NHS trusts in England received average pay rises of 6.4 per cent last year, well ahead of the Government’s two per cent target for the public sector, according to a new study.

But bosses at Shropshire’s NHS Trust, the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust, said its directors were given a below average pay increase.

Average salaries for a chief executive of an NHS Foundation Trust increased to £158,000, compared with £132,000 for a non-foundation body, said pay analyst IDS.

Executive salaries in foundation trusts rose by an average of 7.6 per cent last year and by 5.7 per cent in non-foundation trusts.

A spokesman for The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust said: “Last year the national pay agreement for staff on Agenda For Change contracts was an increase of 2.75 per cent from April 1. Doctors were awarded an increase of 2.2 per cent.

“The Trust agreed to give its executives the lower of these two increases, which was 2.2 per cent.”

Steve Tatton, of IDS, said that heading up an NHS trust was now a “high-pressure role”.

He said: “A number of trusts have cited the need to retain key staff when offering an explanation for awarding them higher than average pay rises.

“In the current climate, the remuneration of NHS directors is subject to intense public scrutiny, particularly when unease about the widening gap between senior executives and the rest of the workforce is growing in both the public and private sector.”