New figures have revealed almost 150 employees at NHS Fife receive ”film star salaries” of over £100,000 a year.
”Additionally, the SNP promised to ‘protect the front line’. However, in reality they have allowed the NHS to haemorrhage almost 4,000 staff, with frontline nurses being forced to bear the brunt of the SNP’s cuts.”
Ms Eadie said that, between September 2009 and July 2011, more than 4,000 NHS staff had been cut, among them almost 2,000 nurses.
Figures show that the number of full-time equivalent nurses and midwives fell from a total of 58,428 in September 2009 to 56,681 this year (a reduction of 1,747).
Meanwhile, in Tayside last year, a total of 281 NHS employees received pay packets in excess of £100,000.
The highest-paid executive was Tayside’s director of public health, Dr Drew Walker, who pocketed between £190,000 and £195,000 in the year to the end of March.
It is the second year in succession that Dr Walker has topped the executive earnings list. Figures show his annual salary and other payments rose by £10,000 in each of the last two years.
A spokesman for NHS Fife said: ”Almost all staff in NHS Fife earning over £100,000 are employed to treat patients.
”NHS Fife employs over 9,000 people. All are paid on scales set nationally, almost all on a UK basis and at levels set by bodies such as the Doctors and Dentists Pay Review Body which have worked over the decades for Governments of all parties.
”NHS boards in Scotland, such as NHS Fife, cannot determine pay rates but must follow national rules.”
The spokesman added: “141 doctors employed by NHS Fife earned more than £100,000 in the year to 31 March 2011. Only three other members of staff, including the board chief executive, earned over £100,000.”
Details of the six-figure pay packets have prompted a furious reaction, with Cowdenbeath MSP Helen Eadie claiming it proves the government is more interested in protecting high earners than frontline services.
She insisted the rocketing salaries come against a backdrop of decreased nursing numbers.
Across NHS Fife a total of 144 executives and clinicians received six-figure pay packets in 2010/11 up from just 121 in 2008/09 and 132 last year.
With many elsewhere in the public sector, and across the private sector, being forced to tighten their belts amid a crippling global economic downturn, Ms Eadie said the figures make a mockery of promises to protect frontline jobs and improve patient care.
”These new official figures show that 144 NHS Fife employees are now being paid over £100,000 per year,” she said. ”The figures come as the SNP government cut almost 2,000 nurses from the NHS across Scotland and despite them promising to cut high-earner pay.”
According to figures collated by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, more than 3,000 NHS executives and staff were paid over £100,000 per year in 2010/11 up from just under 2,000 in 2008/09.
Ms Eadie called for a shift in focus, insisting any additional financial resources should be targeted at frontline services.
”The SNP promised to ‘cut the pay bill of the highest earners’,” she continued. ”However, there are now over 144 executives and employees in the NHS in Fife alone paid film star salaries of over £100,000.”
Ms Eadie said the statistics provide evidence that a catalogue of pledges have been broken in recent times.
”The SNP also promised to ‘protect the NHS budget in Scotland’, yet the government is cutting the NHS budget by £319 million in real terms.
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