More than 20 health staff in Huddersfield and Calderdale were paid over £150,000 last year - with three earning more than £200,000.

Owen Williams, chief executive of the cash-strapped Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, earned £189,255, and also claimed £1,653 in expenses, according to figures obtained by the Taxpayers’ Alliance.

And four staff earned more than him, with the highest paid getting £224,848, and others earning £207,879, £202,037, and £196,539.

All the top earners apart from him were said to be consultants.

Mr Williams is the only one of the 24 staff earning more than £150,000 at the trust who is identified in the figures. Between them they were on a combined salary of more than £4 million.

Owen Williams

The figures also show that 145 clinical staff, and six non clinical staff, at the trust earned between £100,000 and £150,000.

The trust currently faces debts of around £20 million, with its biggest costs including staff and running duplicate services. Finance director Keith Griffiths has said 2014/15 has been the most difficult year he has faced in his 19 years as a finance director.

READ MORE:

According to the latest TPA health salary figures, nine GPs in Kirklees and Calderdale earned more than £100,000.

And other parts of Yorkshire saw higher salaries. An unnamed associate specialist at the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust received £304,950, and chief executive Stephen Eames earned £240,000.

Nationally, the highest paid people in the NHS were five general dental practitioners whose earnings totalled more than £3.45 million - £690,572 each, on average. The highest paid person at an NHS Trust was Mary Burrow, chief executive of Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board, in Wrexham, who received £454,404. By comparison, Prime Minister David Cameron earns £142,500.

Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, Acre Street, Lindley, Huddersfield
Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, Acre Street, Lindley, Huddersfield

Andrew Haigh, chairman of the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, said:”The un-named salaries above £150k listed are for senior consultants.

“They are paid in accordance with national terms and conditions and may include on-call allowance payments and clinical excellence awards which are awarded by local or national committees. Consultant pay is in line with other Trusts in the country”.

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “No one begrudges paying doctors and nurses well for the tough jobs that they do, but it’s galling to see bosses at failing hospitals continuing to rake in the cash.

“It’s an insult to taxpayers, but it’s even worse for the patients who have suffered because of mismanagement, and worse. The rewards-for-failure culture is rife in the NHS and it must be stamped out.”

Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax.

It is the second release by the Taxpayers’ Alliance as part of its Public Sector Rich List series. Its Town Hall Rich List showed 3,483 council staff earned more than £100,000 in 2013/14.

Three of Kirklees Council’s top officers each earned over £150,000 last year. And a further six officers raked in more than £100,000. They included Kirklees Council chief executive Adrian Lythgo who earned £169,585.