THE number of NHS managers earning £300,000 has more than doubled in a year despite Labour vows to stop the bureaucrat bloat.
Research reveals nearly 600 health service fat cats earn more than the Prime Minister, and dozens are raking in over half a million pounds.
The number of NHS managers earning £300,000 has more than doubled in a year despite Labour vows to stop the bureaucrat bloat Credit: Getty
Research reveals nearly 600 health service fat cats earn more than the Prime Minister, and dozens are raking in over half a million pounds Credit: PA
One chief nurse received a staggering £710,000 at a hospital last month ruled to have overseen one of the worst maternity death scandals in NHS history.
The NHS Rich List by the Taxpayers Alliance found 1,603 senior management earned a six-figure base salary in 2024-25, with many topped up with bonuses.
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It was a four per cent increase from the previous year.
The number of pen-pushers making more than £300,000 increased from 125 to 292 in a single year, with 17 of them earning that even before bonuses and extras.
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Forty-two suits earned more than half a million pounds each.
Report author Anne Strickland said: “Taxpayers will be appalled that NHS executive pay is soaring while patients are still left waiting for care.
“Ministers must keep their promise to link performance to pay, so that failing NHS bosses are held accountable and money goes into patients’ care not managers’ pockets.”
Conservative shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew added: “Running the NHS is a demanding job and managers should be rewarded for delivering results.
“But paying managers large bonuses while patients receive poor care is not good value for taxpayers or fair on NHS frontline staff.”
The TPA report showed 574 managers were paid more than the Prime Minister’s wage of £172,153 – up from 512 in 2023-24.
Bumper salaries keep rising despite little improvement to patient services.
Waiting list backlogs are increasing again, at 7.28million in May, and a quarter of A&E visitors do not get seen for four hours or more.
Around 50,000 emergency patients every month are left waiting 12 hours or more for a bed, and 3,000 per day get treated in corridors and side rooms.
Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting promised to stop “rewarding failure” and said he would block pay rises and bonuses for bosses at poorly performing hospitals.
But the Taxpayers Alliance report shows salaries continued to bulge under his leadership.
It found that East Cheshire NHS had some of the worst A&E wait times in England but its chief executive more than doubled his pay from £172,500 in 2024 to £377,500 in 2025.
Meanwhile the chief nurse at Nottingham University Hospitals – at the centre of a mum and baby deaths disgrace – pocketed £700,000 with a half-a-million pound pension bump.
The ‘Inclusion and Equity’ director at Barts Health in London earned a salary of £233,000, the report said.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “Competitive salaries and rewards enable the NHS to attract and retain the best talent available, driving up the service delivered for patients.
“But we have made clear that pay must be linked to performance, with a new policy that means only high-performing leaders are rewarded, while those who fail to improve services and cut waiting times no longer receive automatic pay rises.”
