A HUGE £200,000 pay out handed to a senior NHS boss has been reclaimed and will be spent on patient care instead.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has used his powers as secretary of state to claw back the payment handed to Ian Stidston when he left Southend Clinical Commissioning Group in April 2018, months before taking on a similar role in Thurrock.

It followed an investigation by the Echo.

Mr Stidston held the post of accountable officer - effectively chief executive officer - before he was handed the bumper package - split about £150,000 for redundancy and £50,000 in lieu of notice.

MPs and residents in south Essex reacted furiously to the news, with Mark Francois, MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, calling for the money to be returned.

Mr Francois, alongside Castle Point MP Rebecca Harris, Southend West MP Sir David Amess, and James Duddridge MP for Rochford and Southend East, held a meeting at the House of Commons with Mr Hancock.

The Health Secretary praised the Echo for a “strong piece of investigative journalism” as he confirmed the money would be reclaimed and put back into front line services.

A joint statement from the four south Essex MPs said: “We would like to thank the Health Secretary for reacting to the Echo’s revelations and for intervening so rapidly to claw this money back.

“As a result, our hard-pressed NHS will now have an extra fifth of a million pounds which they can spend on patient care.

“This is a victory for common sense and hopefully the people of south Essex will benefit as a result.”

After leaving Southend CCG, Mr Stidston then joined Thurrock CCG where he is currently interim director of commissioning, according to the September 2019 board papers.

The two commissioning groups are set to merge under plans for a new Mid and South Essex Clinical Commissioning Group, prompting concerns over why he was given the huge payment before re-joining the NHS in another senior post.

Mr Hancock was quick to insist the money could be redirected straight back into patient care.

He said: “I am pleased that because of legislation passed under the Conservative Government, I have the power to intervene in cases like this.

“I have therefore exercised my authority as Health Secretary to reclaim this money, which can now be spent on patients instead.

“I would like to thank the Echo for a strong piece of investigative journalism and MPs for bringing this to my attention, so that I then had the opportunity to do the right thing.”

In the Echo’s initial story the Taxpayers’ Alliance raised serious concerns over the “trajectory of this staff member”.

Speaking at the time about the payment a spokesman for the CCG said: “NHS Southend and NHS Castle Point and Rochford Clinical Commissioning Groups formed a joint management team to streamline commissioning that has ultimately reduced running costs. This process resulted in the need to make changes to roles and responsibilities of existing staff and put in place some temporary staffing arrangements to ensure CCG legal duties were met. This also resulted in redundancies. All redundancy and associated payments are paid in line with nationally agreed NHS terms and conditions of service.”

Money reclaimed under new rules

IN a final act before MPs became parliamentary candidates, four from south Essex met the Health Secretary to investigate NHS senior management payouts.

Following an Echo investigation MP Mark Francois wrote to Mr Hancock, as well as the National Audit Office, urging the money be returned and stating he would raise the issue at Parliament.

On Tuesday, Sir David raised the issue at the House of Commons, branding it “disgraceful”.

Mr Hancock replied stating that NHS redundancy terms were capped at £160,000 in 2015, and that the Government had consulted on lowering that to £95,000 and introduced powers to claw back contractual redundancy payments when someone returns to any public sector job within 12 months.

The money has now been claimed back under this recent rule.