The 50-year-old received a package worth £899,810 including salary and pension arrangements. The reorganisation was supposed to save £250 million a year in administration costs. However, the NHS is thought to have spent at least £320 million on redundancy packages to those who have lost their jobs.

The Royal College of Nursing is concerned that NHS managers are creaming off large sums of money in settlements that should be spent on patient care.

When the North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire Strategic Health Authority, where Mr Johnson worked, was abolished the average payment was £24,725 to those who took redundancy and £48,191 for those who took early retirement.

Robert Goodwill, the Tory MP, condemned the settlement awarded to Mr Johnson. He said: “Most people will look at this and say this is a lottery win rather than a payout.”

Mr Goodwill, who represents Scarborough and Whitby, in North Yorks, said he understood Mr Johnson was entitled to the payout under the terms of his contract. But he criticised the contract itself and the multiple reorganisations of the NHS that lead to high-profile job losses.

Mr Goodwill said: “How do I explain these payouts to people who can’t get their Alzheimer’s disease drugs, or they can’t get drugs for conditions causing blindness?”

A spokesman for the Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority, created last year in the merger of three regional health authorities, including Mr Johnson’s, said administration staff had lost their jobs in order to save money.

In a statement, he said: “Yorkshire and the Humber SHA were set the target of reducing management costs by £6.8 million by 2007-08.

“A programme was undertaken to reduce workforce numbers, including a recruitment freeze and redeployment of staff within the NHS.

“A number of compulsory redundancies and early retirements formed part of this programme. This incurred one-off costs in line with national terms and conditions for NHS staff. All payments relating to individuals were based on their age, pay scale and length of service.

“By the end of the next financial year the savings to local taxpayers will exceed these one-off costs. These savings will then continue to accrue each year.”

From:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/13/npayout113.xml

Given the current climate of tony’s cronies- Health Direct asks if there any relationship between David Johnson the NHS lottery winner and Alan Johnson the NHS boss?