Hospital director’s salary: ‘We got our sums wrong’
Saturday 19th February 2011, 2:59PM GMT.
Health Minister Anne Pryke
HEALTH Minister Anne Pryke has admitted she got the salary of the new Hospital director wrong in the States this week.
She has apologised to her States colleagues and blamed the error – which led to her saying that Andrew McLaughlin was being paid £26,000 a month – on a miscalculation.
The JEP reported on Wednesday that Mr McLaughlin’s contract was costing the taxpayer £26,000 a month, resulting in a £312,000 annual salary.
But in a joint statement released yesterday afternoon by Deputy Pryke and her Assistant Minister, Deputy Eddie Noel, they said that Mr McLaughlin’s contract was actually worth £216,000 a year, equating to £18,000 a month.
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
Travel
To, from and around the Island
Airport Arrivals/Departures
Harbours Arrivals/Departures
Bus Information/Timetables
JOIN US ON...
Facebook and Twitter
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Got a story? Get in touch
KIT 4 CLUBS
Win a share of £10,000
2012 is the year of the London Olympics and to celebrate this great event the Jersey Evening Post, in association with sponsors Ogier is giving all sporting clubs a chance to win a share of £10,000.
This is Jersey
Jersey Evening Post
Useful links
She got the appointment wrong as well, just as hers was!
Report abuse
Oh G**, the CoM cannot be trusted to get the most basic of sums correct, again. Sorry but no votes for you then.
Report abuse
Ministers can’t be expected to carry out such difficult mathematical calculations … it’s not what they do.
Report abuse
In charge of a budget in excess of £100M and she has a problem dividing £216,000 by 12.
Makes you wonder.
Report abuse
got the sums wrong, well its only tax payers money after all.
how many other sums have been wrong?
ask the auditor general the true cost, or thru the media would he care to clear this up.
will the taxpayer ever know a true figure?
how many have found their tax rate go up due to a short fall in the percentage they were paying?
should of saved , i can hear some say, save your are having a laugh .
al thomas’s cartoon (saturday) of the loaded tax payer is right.
Report abuse
And £18,000 a month isn’t considered too much??? Craziness!
Report abuse
Not £312,000, only £216,000…
That’s alright then.
Report abuse
oh dear…it was out by £6k. Still to damn expensive! No wonder the States is in a mess when they can not even get there own figures right in the first place.
Report abuse
“we got our sums wrong” – no you didn’t you knew exactly what you were doing, playing head games, so when you come out with the real salary we all breathe a sigh of relief, well actually it is still far too high and should have been negotiated down – but there again who in the States knows how to negotiate.
Do us all a favour and resign!!!
Report abuse
Sounds like back pedling to offset the public backlash! If I was as bad at my job as 99% of the COM’s and higher level states departmental managers i’d have been sacked. It makes me sick to think that i now pay 100% more tax than i did in 2005.
Report abuse
Dear God – what idiots we have in the States. I dread thinking what is going to happen to our lovely island when things like this happen. Would she have admitted to her mistake if the public outcry had not been so vociferous?
Report abuse
Would someone please donate a few quid to buy Anne Pryke a new abacus for her sums and dictionary so she can spell ‘resignation’. With a faux pas like this, she needs to consider her position.
Report abuse
Time for Mrs Pryke (as I simply feel sick at the notion of actually calling her a minister) to resign.
Report abuse
Mark G said….
‘oh dear…it was out by £6k. Still to damn expensive! No wonder the States is in a mess when they can not even get there own figures right in the first place’
FYI £26k minus £18k is £8k.
Report abuse
The minister is a light-weight leader of such a monster department. But I bet she is not responsible for the maths and probably unaware that her lazy, overpaid and head-in-the-sand senior civil servants had released the information.The whole health service management regime is only fit for instigating reviews, enquiries, consultancy reports, feesability studies etc, etc. As health care goes, they are shambolic.
Report abuse
Deputy Pryke – please could you clarify whether this revised figure is the actual amount he will be receiving or whether it’s what he will get after payment of income tax, social security etc?
Maybe I’m being a bit cynical here, but it’s just that I’m a little concerned with the words “actually worth” in your statement, “Mr McLaughlin’s contract was actually worth £216,000 a year”
Report abuse
OK, so an annual salary of £312K (or £216K) demands scrutiny – but what a lot of holier-than-thou comments from people who have never in their lives made a silly arithmetical error. Funny that I never meet one of these perfect, error-free people in my life, and then along come half-a-dozen all at once, jostling to cast the first stone.
#8 Mark: 26 minus 18 = 8. Anyone can make a mistake, don’t you agree?
Report abuse
Only £216,000? Net or gross?
Report abuse
can she tell us please how has the six million been saved , or has she got that figure wrong |||
what a laughing stock some of these politicians are useless
Report abuse
So our health minister did not pass O-level Maths.
We are in good hands.
Report abuse
What mistake? The figures should have been checked before she released them in the states chamber. This is no more than damage limitation.
The cost is too high whatever the case.
She is out of her depth and needs to go. Another monumental cock up by the non elected representatives.
This is what you get from someone who was never elected to office and did not have to face the electorate with a manifesto.
Report abuse
Oh, I seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Let’s have three if it’s only costing that!
Report abuse
Go now Pryke you have zero credibility. Take that man with you as well. We do not want either of you.
Report abuse
If this statement is supposed to appease the people of Jersey it hasn’t worked. If anything it’s made it worse
Report abuse
First she said £312.000 was “GOOD VALUE” !
Then she admits mistake – he “only” gets £216.000
If I were McClaughlin I would immediately ask for a £96.000 rise as according to Mrs Pyke I am underpaid….
How much worse can it get Terry ?
Report abuse
Bloody ridiculous, more money a month than most WORKERS in jersey earn a year. Waste of our hard earned money !!!!!!!
Report abuse
So we couldn’t use a calculator Anne?
We can all assume you failed your maths exams then! You should try the MMS way by Richard Dunne lol
What about some bank statements to prove this new figure of £216,000, which is way too much or have you got that figure wrong to and it’s really £316,000 a month!
Report abuse
When will we stop having to feel the shame and embarrassment of this island being run by overpaid imports and incompetent states idiots.
Report abuse
Jerry # 17. Yes I have made arithmetical errors in the past, but I am not a Minister in the States and I am not responsible for a very large budget. I don’t control spending taxpayer’s money. Furthermore you’d expect politician’s in Ministerial posts to check and double check their intended statements…..attention to detail is necessary.
Report abuse
I agree with #16 Gary’s comments & also wonder if there is hidden extra’s, such as a housing allowance.
Report abuse
Phew for a moment I thought he was being over-paid.
Raises an interesting point thout, at what stage would he be paid too much?
Report abuse
This is truly not a big deal.
Report abuse
How insulting to all our wonderful medical staff,HR should enforce that all public appointments are advertised and put through the correct selection procedure, or as deputy Pryke said “it would attract the wrong candidate”…cheers Anne Pryke! Nice to see you show such loyalty to your fellow colleagues!
Report abuse
Oh dear Deputy Bumble. Can’t get your simple sums right. Our Chief Minister must have listened to you as well, he got the invoice.
I guess one of the problems in Jersey is the lack of high calibre politicians who don’t bumble along in their job of running an island. What we do have is the potential to have someone voted in as a politician, at whatever level, with just a handful of votes, who then go on to become a Minister responsible for millions of pounds, jobs, taxes, and all that goes with the position.
You’re not up to the job Deputy Pryke, it’s time you did the honourable thing.
Report abuse
So, what’s the fuss about? An error of £100K is nothing to this lot. They’re real experts … they can overspend our money to the tune of £100M. This circus will never end.
Report abuse
She didn’t do the maths.
Lessons must be learned, at the end of the day.
Report abuse
While McLaughlin was sucking up £26,000 a month, what the hell was Garbut, the recently appointed Chief Officer of Health, supposed to be doing on her fat salary plus benefits? As for the Health Minister it’s time to send her back to the bed-pan department! As the old saying goes, “Put a peasant on a horse and he or she will ride for the devil.”
Report abuse
We have 3 ministers who cant put a coherent sentence together. Now we have one who can’t do simple maths as well. God help us all.
Report abuse
I suspect something not right here, is he taking home the £26K a month, minus allowances, there is something not right here or he would have denied it within minutes of the ‘mistake’ on Tuesday. No one in power in this Island can be trusted. If someone published by salary by 1/3 over I would refute it immediately. Please explain this Mr Mclaughlin
Report abuse
The Real Problem.
The real losers in all this are the patients. A relative of mine, on the day she died, had to be transferred from one ward to another in her bed, but due to the fact that the lift in the ‘old’ part of the hospital was unreliable. i.e. they might have got stuck in it, had to be moved to a smaller bed in pain,to fit into the other lift. What an end to a life !
An independent review needs to be carried out into why the hospital has been allowed to deteriorate so badly,and what the REAL pay details are. The entrance is lovely, but some of the wards leave a lot to be desired. Stop spending too much money on senior management and spend some on the infrastructure and the hard working staff struggling to cope with what they’ve got.
Report abuse
#40 Ali
”
Stop spending too much money on senior management and spend some on the infrastructure and the hard working staff struggling to cope with what they’ve got.”
I agree. The island has been through such prosperous times that we should be benefitting from a well-structured and well-resourced infrastructure. Good hospital, public transport, well-maintained roads, island-wide mains drains etc etc. No need for white elephants such as a steam clock, vast cavern not linked to West Centre, ugly waterfont, christmas lighting (damaged by floods and replaced) that now extends through Colomberie, King Street, Queen Street, Parade, Liberty Wharf, Weighbridge, Waterfront.
Concentrating on the appearance and neglecting the less-glamorous essentials/infrastructure sometimes seems like we’re sprinkling glitter on the proverbial.
Is this the new Jersey? Bring back the island that I love.
Report abuse
the £26,00 was inclusive of fuel allowance,rent rebate and income support, that deducted you have a true figure of the salary
Report abuse
Real Truthseeker
Posted February 20, 2011 at 9:03 am
This is truly not a big deal.
As ever you are entirely right.
Just imagine the basl*s up they could do on a really big deal. Like rebuilding the hospital for instance.
But as I’m sure you will point out, it’s all the electorates fault for putting utter morons into power and then letting those same morons choose which of them is allowed to make moronic decisions.
That said ‘ I welcome the clarity that the ministers statement now gives’ will be the Department for Internal Communications angle, no doubt.
Report abuse
But Ann your sidekick is supposed to be an accountant…you really are not going to be believed on this one, stay home ,bake cookies…it’s really not for you.
Report abuse
#37 Jersey Bull
Good point ! Wasn’t she the one who recently commissioned independent UK experts to make a report how to save more money ?
The mind boggles
Report abuse
Julie Garbut :
http://www.thisisjersey.com/2011/01/11/new-post-at-health/
Report abuse
CONSULTANTS from the UK have launched a major review into the Island’s Health Service at a cost of nearly £800,000.
Health Minister Anne Pryke said that the review was needed because the Island’s health, community and social services were ‘rapidly approaching a major crossroads’.
Read more: http://www.thisisjersey.com/2010/11/23/health-review-to-cost-760000/#ixzz1EXTkF9wn
Report abuse
We all make mistakes.
AP is not a bad person but must prove herself to be honest with the taxpayer, it is not her fault she was voted in with a seat from a rotten borough parish.
Time for AP to make a clear statement about all compensation, salary, pension, bonus and other benefits attached to this post and think about how more openess can be embraced for all publicly funded jobs above say GBP80k
Report abuse
Does Ms Pryke mean that the SALARY is “only” 216K, but the man is COSTING 312K – housing, travel to and fro to UK, medical cover, education for children etc agency fees, or whatever the other costs might be ofo employing an expat type. Either way it is obscene, but it looks more like maths massaging to me than getting sums wrong.
Report abuse
14.God’s Mentor
Lol!! At least i am not a States Member. New calculator on its way unlike some people we know.
Report abuse
17. Jerry
I agree mistakes can be made but i don’t work in the States where you would expect the members to know what is been spent.
Report abuse
The problem with the hospital as with the rest of the island is mass immigration. The hospital is the same size, but the population has been allowed to increase – against the wishes of locals.
That is why there are waiting lists for everything – if you want treatment you need private health insurance. Been there and seen it.
Report abuse
Can we just have a number that equates to what the cost is to Jersey.
I don’t care if it is wages, benefits, pension, fuel allowance, relocation allowance, clothing allowance, travel reimbursements or bonuses.
Not how much is declared as salary, how much does he cost us?
Let’s not get caught by this semantic.
Report abuse
This consultant stays at a hotel whilst here. For UK tax purposes he is resident there Fridays to Mondays ie 4 days per week. Be interesting to know what Jersey income tax is deducted from his salary and whether there is any Jersey refund because of “double taxation”.
Report abuse
53# Quite right, we are being misled, what is the ‘true cost’ and how is the tax deducted. Why is he staying a hotel and not elsewere, there is definitely something fishy about his. The more I read I do not believe the simplified explaination that it was a mistake, esp. as someone has pointed out her deputy is an accountant.
Report abuse
Banter here is reasonably light hearted which is good, because AP is doing her best and misquoting a number and then correcting it is hardly unprecedented. One does wonder, on a wider point, whether she is out of her depth, through no fault of her own (ain’t an easy position, maybe she is just too nice). What I would say is that we don’t want a Health Chief Exec out of his depth, and he costs what he costs and I wish him well in doing a difficult job. Without knowing a huge amount of the ins and outs, I would guess that he is better value than whatever we are paying that Chief Health Officer Geller, her Deputy and anyone else we are employing to make public statements of the bleeding obvious on our behalf. (It’s Winter, some people catch flu, woo-hoo).
Report abuse
at least we know the approximate cost of this man.
we are still waiting to know how much the man in Brussels is being paid
Report abuse
So, lets see another consultant review – £760k, + newly appointed CHO + contract Hospital Director.
Who is responsible for identifying the efficiencies ? Depends on who you ask – all three individually or a combination of the three ? But then, there goes another £1m !
Report abuse
ah well – thats alright then isnt it – only £18000
Report abuse
Insulting the public’s intelligence is not a good or smart move….pathetic protestations like we got the sums wrong…yeah right after you had wriggled not to reveal the figure…wonder why….then claiming the man saved 600k…who says..you..?well why would we believe that either it might have been six quid by the same token…and brain of britain Edddy Noell a man of figures…so truth is we can not believe a word that is said…pack up and go, take him with you and let someone in who can…
Report abuse
Hmmm, does the new “correct” figure still include pension / social security / house / car / parking etc? that what the difference will probably be, but thats ok, the Jersey coffers can afford those! Ha!
Report abuse
and yet the rest of us work our backsides off trying to cope with the serious cuts that are taking place in the States… which ARE affecting front line services! an absolute disgrace.
Report abuse
there in a subtle difference in her statements:
Wednesday:
Mr McLaughlin’s contract was costing the taxpayer £26,000 a month resulting in a £312,000 annual salary
Friday:
Mr McLaughlin’s contract was actually worth £216,000 a year
Could Mrs Pryke actually confirm what the total cost of employing McLauchlin is? I suspect it is the first figure £312k pa, but he himself only receives £216k (the rest being agency fees etc.)
Report abuse
DMS I am wondering this myself. Maybe they have back tracked to make it look more palitable?
Two flights per week and accommodation doesn’t come cheap. I am led to believe he doesn’t use hospital accommodation but is put up in The Grand Hotel. How much does the agency get?
Plenty of questions will anyone answer them?
Report abuse
We all know that quoted figures in Jersey are only the obvious. The real figure is probably much higher.
Report abuse
Classic Jersey, people are struggling to get to the UK for cancer treatment after being told they “earn too much” and yet the States are paying this clown god knows how much.
Yes god only knows, as who can believe what they tell you now whilst back peddling.
Report abuse
Last year it was “They can’t speak English”.
This year “They Can’t Count”.
Next year “They got their Doctorate in Christmas cracker!”
Can’t Wait
Report abuse
Good job you were not working out a drug dose then Anne.
Report abuse
I’m beginning to think we need to get some primary school teachers to start up classes within the States!
Report abuse
Not only do they employ a Hospital Director at high prices but he has also had an executive assistant appointed to help him Anne Pryke has had a PA to assist her so much for savings
Report abuse
The States are again muddling to cover up what’s going on. There is no discrepancy between the statements of Pryke:
Wednesday:
£312,000 annual salary, meaning total emolument = gross salary plus additional employer’s contributions
Friday:
£216,000 gross salary per annum
Read more: http://www.thisisjersey.com/2011/02/19/hospital-directors-salary-we-got-our-sums-wrong/#ixzz1EuUnG1dG
Report abuse
I think it is such a shame that the majority of you are so quick to shout ‘get them out’. You voted them in, they are trying to do their jobs (which lets face it, is slightly more demanding than working out figures for the Islanders to then attack them about). I dont know about you, but when someone starts a job, it takes them years to develop a full knowledge of every fact, figure, business requirement, legal process etc. Rome wasnt built in a day people. I believe we have some very good states members who should be given the chance to further the work they have started. If you dont agree and think you could do a better job, why dont you run instead of criticising those who do? (Might be because you see what a hard time they get no matter what they do?!)
Maybe the attitude of ‘get them out’ is the problem. They start their role, make plans, get the ball rolling and are never able to see it through. I thought the saying was ‘Consistency is key’?
We have a beautiful Island, full of miserable moaning people who cant appreciate how good we have it. Such a shame. Take a long hard look around you, do you really have it that hard?
Report abuse
You’ve still got your sums wrong, Anne.
£216,000 pounds is not the correct answer. It’s not even close.
Report abuse
Beautiful Jersey # 72 The sad fact is in an executive role you haven’t got years to get a feel for the job, you’ve got to hit the ground running.
Anne Pryke may be a nice person, but being nice is not a quality that gets you very far in politics. You need to be tough and policitcally astute – not nice.
Report abuse
“Beautiful Jersey # 72 The sad fact is in an executive role you haven’t got years to get a feel for the job, you’ve got to hit the ground running.”
Not really true many of the most successful executives are company people, oil companies in particular seem to be headed up by people who have spent decades working their way up Big Oil Plc.
Ministers are the accountable side of the department, the senior management should be running things.
One of the problem with a lot of our ministers is they do not know how to be ministers and either try and micromanage the department or seem to spend their time political grandstanding
Report abuse
Say’s it all really. The Health Minister can’t count! I wonder if the Health Minister went to a fee-paying school?
What completely galls me is that – like Education and the TTS unions for that matter – the Health department holds society up to ransom with the same old, same old: “we do the jobs that you NEED us to do, we do the jobs that nobody else could or WANTS to do”.
Nobody denies that these people provide a valuable service that we all need and appreciate, but, it doesn’t give them carte blanche to play on our guilt and appreciation to get away with wastage and incompetence.
Report abuse
#72 You can very quickly see where people’s values lie. And this lot’s values lie in entirely the wrong places as evidenced time and time again.
Had the man started his job and made it clear his desire was to get more nurses and cut pen-pushing then I would think he would get a lot of support, instead he’s pen-pushing and cut essential services.
Report abuse