HEALTH chiefs are under fire for offering a six-figure salary for an “absurd” management job.
Cash-strapped nurses hit picket lines in sub-zero temperatures yesterday in a desperate bid for a pay boost.
But one lucky job-hunter will scoop £115,000 per year to be a “Director of Lived Experience” in Stafford.
A baffling job description seeks an “interpersonally talented and strategic bridge-builder”.
The jargon-stuffed ad, posted by Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, is a tiring 1,300 words long.
The trust runs community care and mental health services around Staffordshire.
It says: “The aim is for this post to provide leadership for lived experience practice; bring the experiential lens to Trust Board decision-making, and facilitate the cultural changes needed to infuse and propagate best practice around shared decision-making.”
Candidates must have had a “life-altering” health condition and be able to talk about “significant power imbalances” they have seen in their treatment.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “Taxpayers are sick to the back teeth of NHS non-jobs.
“The ‘lived experience’ of patients is a collapsing service despite soaring spending.
“Time for health chiefs to focus funds on the frontline.”
TalkTV’s Isabel Oakeshott added: “We could scrap all these ridiculous non-jobs and pay frontline workers properly.”
The NHS says “lived experience” staff advise bosses and medics from a patient’s perspective.
A director would represent them at board meetings.
The NHS already has at least 2,056 fat cats earning six-figure salaries in management jobs.
Last year’s top earner took home almost £300,000 of taxpayer cash, according to The Telegraph – nearly double the Prime Minister’s salary.
An average NHS nurse earns £33,384 per year and tens of thousands are now striking in a bid to improve on this year’s offer of a £1,400 pay rise.
Neil Carr, CEO of Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said: “For almost 10 years, MPFT has been leading the way in using the experience of people who use our services to improve them.
“National guidance recommends appointing a patient director who is responsible for raising the profile of the service user voice in planning, implementing and monitoring shared decision making.
“We are proud to be continuing our tradition of co-production.”
