Stockton Council has been urged to write to health secretary, Alan Johnson, over a ‘disgraceful' pay rise for a local health chief. Russell Hart, chairman of North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation, has reportedly been handed a 150% pay hike by the trust's governors from £20,000 to £50,000 for three days a week, a move which has been met with outrage from Stockton's Labour group. The council met last week and agreed to look into the possibility of carrying out a review of the pay increase. The Labour group at the council has already written to Mr Johnson to express its anger over the sharp increase, which comes at a time when health workers are receiving pay increases of just 2%. Alan Foster, the chief executive at the North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation, told a local newspaper comparing a pay rise for a fundamental change in responsibilities of role to the cost of living for NHS staff was ‘not comparing like with like'. Hartlepool Council's Labour group has also expressed disgust over the pay hike in a letter to Mr Hart.
