East Lancashire health chiefs on public sector 'rich list'

Dr Ellis Friedman, NHS East Lancashire’s director of public health, and the trust’s former chief executive, David Peat, both appear in the Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA) Public Sector Rich List 2009.

Dr Friedman last year collected £190,700 for his role which includes responsibility for health policy across Hyndburn, Ribble Valley, Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale.

He even earned more than NHS East Lancashire’s top boss, David Peat, who collected £165,800 before quitting earlier this year. And in a year when many saw salaries frozen or even cut, both Dr Friedman and Mr Peat enjoyed pay rises of at least 2.6 per cent.

Yesterday, as NHS East Lancashire defended the salaries, the TPA condemned ‘public sector fat-cats’. TPA policy analyst John O’Connell said: “Executive pay in the public sector is completely divorced from the reality of Britain’s fiscal crisis. Ordinary families, struggling to make ends meet in the recession, don’t pay their taxes to fund gold-plated deals for public sector fat-cats.”

Elsewhere in the list, Steven Broomhead, chief executive of the North West Development Agency (NWDA), earned £196,942, just £750 less than PM Gordon Brown.

Four other bosses from the NWDA, the Government-funded body charged with boosting economic growth, were also included in the survey.

This year’s Public Sector Rich List was dominated by staff at bailed-out banks and topped by Mark Fisher, from the Royal Bank of Scotland, on £1.4million.

The list excluded top-earning officials from councils.

However, it has previously been revealed that Lancashire County Council chief executive Ged Fitzgerald earns £190,000 and Graham Burgess, boss of Blackburn with Darwen Council, earns at least £120,000.

Hyndburn chief David Welsby and Pendle’s Stephen Barnes earn £109,996 and £125,770 respectively.

An NHS spokesman said: “The salary of the chief executive is awarded in accordance with national policy and guidance relating to very senior managers in the NHS.”