The bill for deputy chief executive Sue Barnett works out at £883 A DAY.

On the face of it, the overall cost of Ms Barnett and the consultancy firm so far dwarfs the annual £120,000 salary of her boss, hospital chief executive Stephen Cass.

The figure for Ms Barnett is revealed in the remuneration report which goes before the hospital board at its meeting on Friday, September 5, and underlines a huge overspend in staff, particularly temporary employees.

Troubled trust

The bill was not paid directly to her, but to a specialist consultancy company called Odgers Interim.

The payment period quoted was from January 17 to March 31, but since then she has completed a further five months at the Worthing and Southlands Trust.

Ms Barnett was a former deputy chief executive at the troubled Barking NHS Hospitals Trust, but stepped down shortly after her then boss Mark Rees had his contract terminated as the trust reeled under large debts.

Although the report praises the Worthing and Southlands hospital trust for "achieving financial balance for the first time in three years", a detailed analysis from financial controller David Dumigan shows the trust is still battling to make up for past debts in recent years.

Clawing back

July showed a "surplus" of £202,000 for the hospital trust, but they had budgeted to clear more than £1million in that month alone to help combat previous debt.

The net effect, says the report, means the hospital trust is so far £3.6 million behind where it had hoped to be.

Over the year, it wants to claw back £8.75million, but the figures show it is nowhere near its target.

The report says pay expenditure is "considerably over" budget levels after four months of the financial year, where there is a trust-wide overspend of £3.5million.

Temporary staff

Total spending on the workforce after four months was £37.6million, compared with £32.5million after the same period last year.

Over that period, temporary staff costs have more than doubled - costing the trust £5million this year compared to £2.2million last year.

Mr Dumigan's report reveals that although the trust has returned to monthly financial "balance" it is "insufficient to meet the planned surplus of £8.75million by the year end".

He says that "immediate measures to address the shortfall in plans have been taken specifically around bank and agency use".

Record numbers

Apart from the financial problems, the report highlights the hospital trust's achievements in the year, with record numbers using maternity and casualty services and an average of 1,000 people a day being treated.

The trust opened an new £1million intensive care unit, was praised for the quality of its maternity and surgical services, introduced a new service for hip fracture patients, and worked hard to control hospital infections and waiting times.

Hospital's letter to employees

After the Herald broke this story on Tuesday, September 2, it was picked up and appeared in a number of national newspapers the following day, including the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail.

The hospital trust's letter reads:

Trust responds to today's media coverage - message from Chairman and Chief Executive

Dear colleague,

We have no doubt that recent press reports regarding the cost of engaging an interim deputy chief executive for the Trust has raised questions amongst staff.

We would like to share with you some of the background which is not being reported by the press and reassure you that the Trust Board fully endorse the decision to continue with the current arrangement.

Sue Barnett joined us in January after the Trust was unable to recruit a replacement deputy chief executive.

We advertised the post twice and on both occasions failed to find a suitable replacement.

It was crucial we filled the post with a manager who had the skills and knowledge needed to drive-up performance and to demonstrate that the Trust would be right choice as the major general hospital for West Sussex.

We had, and still have, an enormous agenda - you will all recall the amount of work involved in Fit for the Future.

Sue played a major contribution in helping achieve that outcome and has helped create our improving results against performance targets in the first part of the year.

As already stated the Trust Board fully endorsed this engagement and the extension to her contract.

The Board also holds the view that it would be unlikely that we could attract appropriate candidates to a permanent post until the outcome of the current options appraisal for organisational change is finalised.

In October the Trust Boards of Royal West Sussex Hospitals and Worthing and Southlands Hospitals will make a decison about our potential merger.

This will remove the current uncertainty and allow us to proceed towards a permanent appointment to this post.

In the meantime the Board continues to value the strong contribution Sue is making to the success of the Trust.

Tom Robson
Chairman

Stephen Cass
Chief Executive

Contact the Herald
ARE there other hospital managers working on temporary contracts for huge amounts?

The Herald thinks the public should know.

Email our news editor in confidence: nicola.mclarnon@worthingherald.co.uk

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