£2,557 a day’s a big pill to swallow (From Bournemouth Echo)

£2,557 a day’s a big pill to swallow

8:00am Friday 30th July 2010 in

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IMAGINE you’re haemorrhaging blood at an alarming rate and desperately need to stem the flow. You rush to hospital for treatment.

What does the surgeon do? He gets out his scalpel and gives you another gash, costing you more blood, at the same time as he was treating the original gaping wound.

But, you’re told, the unorthodox, painful treatment was necessary in order to get the best surgeon for the tricky operation.

How would you feel? Pretty faint, I expect.

It isn’t blood that Dorset County Hospital Trust was worried about losing but money. After their last chief executive stepped down, they chose to tackle their predicted financial deficit by shelling out an arm and a leg for an interim chief executive. For 97 days’ work, the fellow they appointed cost a reported £2,557 A DAY, plus more than £200-a-day expenses.

And, on top of that, according to reports, the Trust employed three other interim officers who, between them, were paid more than £3,000 a day. Plus expenses. Ouch.

If the interim team did an efficient job staunching the flow and saving money, as the Trust suggests, perhaps those juicy salaries they were paid was money well spent indeed.

But one thing’s for sure. There will be a lot of hospital staff at Dorchester, including many nurses, worried about jobs and taking home a lot less than £2,557 A MONTH, who will be asking if the people who approved those seemingly swollen sums should have their heads examined?

And wondering if the recipients were laughing all the way to the blood bank?