THE man employed to save money at Whipps Cross University Hospital was last year's highest-paid NHS executive.

Norman Lindsay, Director of Turnaround, was brought in to spearhead the trust's savings programme which was introduced last year in response to a £40 million projected deficit.

According to the Taxpayers' Alliance, which published its annual Public Sector Rich List last week, his £395,000 salary was the biggest in the NHS and amounted to a staggering £7,596 per week, or £217 an hour.

Mr Lindsay, whose professional background is in private sector consultancy, earned £50,000 more than the second-best paid NHS executive, the Director of Turnaround at the Royal West Sussex NHS Trust.

He was employed at Whipps Cross for a period lasting ten months during the 2006-07 financial year and the trust now has a reduced deficit of £10 million - £4.8 million less than expected at the beginning of 2006/07.

A spokeswoman for Whipps Cross said that the appointment had been made on the advice of the Turnaround Director of NHS London, and the salary was "the going rate" for someone with his experience.

"We were not unusual in paying that amount - he brought expertise to the NHS that as an organisation we did not have.

"The trust was transparent, both with its staff and the local community, about the associated costs and the reasons why this external post was required.

She added: "As a result of a series of spending controls and money saving initiatives instigated by the Director of Turnaround, the trust more than achieved its end of year savings."

A UNION representative at Whipps Cross has condemned the salary paid to Norman Lindsay.

Charlotte Monro, of Unison, said the appointment was not good value, and described the NHS's use of consultants as a "gravy train."

She added: "It is unethical to go into an area of the health service in a desperate situation and extort such a vast amount of money.

"Many staff I've talked to find it deeply offensive that people who devote their lives to patient care are on low pay and someone who came in to save money is paid such a vast amount.

"Turnaround may have saved the trust a lot of money, but it was pretty devastating in terms of people and resources. Many of the more useful suggestions came from staff anyway."

She added some measures proposed by Mr Lindsay's team, such as slashing the number of medical secretaries, were ill-thought out and only put forward because they had been introduced elsewhere.