MP angry at £243,000 NHS pay-off

Mr Baker has written to the health secretary for an explanation

An MP has criticised a £243,000 pay-off to an NHS director who worked for a debt-ridden trust for three weeks.

The settlement was revealed in East Sussex Downs and Weald Primary Care Trust's annual report for 2005-2006.

The payment included a confidentiality clause, but Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, said the recipient was a Dr Iheadi Onwukwe.

The NHS trust said the legal settlement was properly agreed by its own board and the Department of Health.

The MP said Dr Onwukwe was put on gardening leave for two-and-a-half years, after working for just three weeks as director of public health at Eastbourne Downs Primary Care Trust (now merged into the new East Sussex Downs and Weald PCT).

He said there had been a dispute with a senior colleague, and the doctor eventually left his post in May 2005.

'Loss of office'

Mr Baker said the payout, at a time when Eastbourne Downs PCT was £4.6m in debt, was a "grotesque waste of money".

"It's unbelievable that someone who was only in a post for three weeks should be paid nearly a quarter of a million pounds to go away," he said.

The East Sussex Downs and Weald annual report stated: "The PCT paid (in 2005) a former executive director compensation for loss of office totalling £243,000 through an agreed legal settlement."

A spokesman added: "The payment was agreed by the board in accordance with NHS guidance.

"The PCT took advice from the Department of Health and its own solicitors through the process."

In July last year, East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust was criticised for making a £231,000 "termination payment" to former chief executive Annette Sergeant.