Shropshire hospitals chief turns down 4.3% pay rise
The £185,000-a-year chief executive of Shropshire's two main hospitals turned down a pay rise of more than four per cent this year, it has been revealed.
Former Territorial Army officer Peter Herring agreed a £175,000 per year starting salary when he took over the top job at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust in September 2012.
He is in charge of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.
As part of the deal, it was agreed his wage packet would go up by 5.7 per cent to £185,000 in March 2013, and then again by another 4.3 per cent to £192,000 this month.
But Professor Peter Latchford, chairman of the trust board, revealed Mr Herring had chosen not to take the second increase and had not received a pay rise in this financial year.
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"Along with the rest of the NHS, this trust faces its challenges," Professor Latchford said. "In this context this is absolutely the right decision to make."
Mr Herring's predecessor, Adam Cairns, was on a wage of £170,000 per year when he left the trust in June 2012.
Prof Latchford said: "It is absolutely right there should be scrutiny of the salaries of senior managers paid from the public purse. As taxpayers we want to be confident that our money is well spent, and that is why it is the job of local people appointed as non-executive directors to decide how much the chief executive and other directors of NHS organisations should be paid."
He added: "Without question, running two hospitals with hundreds of thousands of patient contacts every year and over 5,000 staff is a big job that needs an experienced person."
All of the executive board members of the trust are also on six-figure salaries, according to the annual report and accounts submitted at the trust board's AGM earlier this month. They have also not been given a pay rise this year, after receiving a one per cent increase last year.
Medical director Dr Edwin Borman will earn £174,000 this year, finance director Neil Nisbet £116,000, chief operating officer Debbie Kadum £111,000 and director of nursing Sarah Bloomfield £109,000.
A spokesman for the trust said nurses at the two hospitals would have received a pay increase of between two per cent and nearly 10 per cent over the same two-year period depending on their salary and seniority.
