EARLY RETIREMENTS AT HEALTH AGENCY HAS COST TAXPAYER NEARLY £500,000

11.51.04am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 27th Jun 2007

Two top officials at a Government agency meant to safeguard patient safety in the NHS have cost the taxpayer almost half a million pounds in early retirement pay, according to figures uncovered by Norman Lamb.

The joint chief executives of the National Patient Safety Agency, Sue Osborn and Susan Williams, have also been paid £138,610 while being on indefinite leave from July 2006 to March 2007 pending an inquiry into their managerial record.

Their interim replacement has cost at least £78,419.

Commenting, MP for North Norfolk and Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb MP said:

"How can anyone justify these joint chief executives first of all being away from work whilst being paid for 8 months at a cost to the public purse of over £200,000 and then receiving retirement packages, together worth almost half a million pounds?

"This is a slap in the face for the many hard working NHS employees who have seen posts cut and training budgets slashed.

"There needs to be total clarity about the circumstances of their absence from work and the decision to award early retirement. This looks like a scandalous use of public money and it is particularly outrageous at a time when local health services have been cut in many parts of the country in order to clear deficits.

"I have written to the Secretary of State asking for a full investigation into this matter and into the stewardship of this agency."

FURTHER INFORMATION AND REFERENCES:

1. Total figures:

Retirement package: £456,984

Salary July 2006- Jan 2007: £106,962

Salary Jan 2007 - March 2007: £31,648

Total for 'Two Sues': £595,594

With addition of acting chief exec salary: £674,013

2. The National Patient Safety Agency accounts 2006/7 show: (page 41)

These costs represent the additional cost to the PA of the pension arrangements. The costs were as follows:

Susan Williams:

Contribution to Pensions Agency: £225,248

Susan Osborn:

Contribution to Pensions Agency: £231,736

The total value of the special payment is therefore £504,457 which has been approved by HM Treasury.

3. The amount paid out in indefinite leave was revealed in Parliamentary answers to Norman Lamb MP:

<http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm070307/text/70307w0027.htm#070307142000936>

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much salary the joint chief executives of the National Patient Safety Agency have received since they stopped work; how much salary has been paid in that period to the acting Chief Executive; and what the cost is of the retirement packages for the joint chief executives. [121429]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The joint chief executives have each received a salary of £53,481 from 7 July 2006 to the end January 2007. They will receive a further £7,912 each per month for February and March 2007. They retire on 31 March 2007. The cost of the early retirement has yet to be finalised.

In the interim period and up to the end of January 2007 the acting chief executive has received a salary of £78,419.

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what plans she has for the National Patient Safety Agency; and if she will make a statement; [121430] (2) what steps have been taken to address the concerns set out in the Public Accounts Committee report on the National Patient Safety Agency in 2006. [121431]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Following the publication of the National Audit Office report "A safer place for patients: learning to improve patient safety in November 2005", the Chief Medical Officer commissioned a review of the organisational arrangements in place to support patient safety. It was explicitly aimed at addressing the issues raised in the NAO report and its concerns with the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA), as well as looking at the national health service's approach to patient safety more widely.

The resulting report "Safety first: A report for patients, clinicians and healthcare managers" was published in December 2006 and is available in the Library. It makes fourteen recommendations including the following about the NPSA's core function:

"The role of the NPSA should be refocused on its core objective of collecting and analysing patient safety data to inform rapid patient safety learning, priority setting and coordinated activity across the NHS. A number of current functions, for example the development of technical solutions to improve patient safety, presently delivered by the organisation should in future be commissioned from other expert organisations with the requisite expertise"

The Department is working closely with the agency in taking forward this and other recommendations in which the agency has an interest.

The agency will continue to have responsibility for the additional functions that it took on following the review of arms length bodies in 2005. These include work on safety aspects of hospital design, cleanliness and food; the Central Office for Research Ethics Committees the National Clinical Assessment Service and managing the contracts of the three national confidential enquiries.