More money down the drain

An NHS manager was given a payoff of £480,000 because he could not find another job after a government-ordered reorganisation.

The settlement awarded to Chris Town, the former chief executive of Greater Peterborough Primary Care Trust, was described as “scandalous” by a local MP, but Mr Town defended it as “not unreasonable”.

The payoff – four times his £120,000 salary – was made last December when the trust was reorganised, Health Service Journal reports. Mr Town had been seconded to act as interim chief executive at the neighbouring Cambridgeshire trust, but was paid off after he did not get the permanent job there or at the revamped Peterborough trust.

The package was underwritten by NHS East of England, which was £152 million in debt last year and has given warning of staff cuts. Stewart Jackson, Conservative MP for Peterborough, said: “It’s scandalous that funds are being spent in that way. It shows the true cost of reconfiguration to the taxpayer.”