HYPOCRITE

Health Sec hires £170k execs while telling docs to call off pay dispute

- MARTIN BAGOT

STEVE Barclay has been accused of hypocrisy for signing off dozens of whopping salaries for NHS bureaucrats while shrinking real-terms pay for top doctors.

The Health Secretary is demanding that consultants call off strikes that have postponed non-urgent care and accept a below-inflation 6% "final offer" wage increase.

Consultants, who started a 48-hour walkout from 7am yesterday, say their real-term pay has fallen by a third under the Tories.

But a Freedom of Information request suggests the Department of Health approved some 69 appointments to the year-old Integrated annual cost Care Systems who are each paid over £170,000 a Barclay more than a Prime Minister's salary of £167,391.