He was named as one of 574 senior NHS managers across the UK who earned a salary greater than the Prime Minister’s £172,153-a-year.
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The report also noted that NHS Ayrshire and Arran had been ranked 11 out of 24 health boards for A&E waiting times in Scotland.
Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals had the senior manager with the highest salary in 2024-25, with chief executive, J Mackey, receiving £377,500, including up to £94,000 moonlighting in other NHS jobs.
NHS Ayrshire & Arran Medical Director Dr Crawford McGuffie (Image: NHS Ayrshire & Arran)
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In 2024-25, there were 1,758 senior managers receiving £100,000 or more in total remuneration, comprising salary, expenses, benefits, bonuses and pension benefits, across 220 NHS trusts, an increase of 3.8 per cent from the previous year.
After concerns over waiting lists and budget issues, the Scottish Government moved NHS Ayrshire and Arran to stage four of the NHS Scotland Support and Intervention Framework earlier this year.
That’s just one step short of Scottish Ministers being forced to make a statutory intervention due to the risk of “organisational dysfunction”.
Anne Strickland of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “Taxpayers will be appalled that NHS executive pay is soaring while patients are still left waiting for care.
“Andy Burnham’s new government has an early opportunity to show taxpayers that it will get a grip on this culture of rewarding failure.”
Former NHS Ayrshire and Arran chief executive Claire Burden left the board last year, after first claiming she was taking a “leave of absence”.
Within weeks it was confirmed she had left the role for good, to be replaced as interim chief executive by Professor Gordon James, former chief executive at NHS Golden Jubilee and later deputy chief operating officer in NHS Scotland.