Hospital Executives' Salaries Revealed

Retired nurse Jean Moore, 76, said: "It seems unbelievable that the hospitals can afford to pay pen pushers this much money instead on investing in new services or improving hospital stays for patients.

"When I was taken in to St Peter's there was blood on the floor of my cubicle, and I wasn't told how things were going or what was going on.

"Surely the money they're spending on these salaries should have been spent within the hospital on the front line."

Among other high earners were the rest of the executive team, which includes Keith Mansfield, the director of finance, who was paid more than £120,000 and the current chief executive, Andrew Liles, who earned £40,000 between starting in the role on January 5 and the end of the financial year, at the start of April.

But John Headley, director of finance since March, defended the trust's spending at the meeting, and said: "As a trust we have made a significant improvement in our finances and any surplus made by the trust stays in the trust.

"This year we have made a surplus of £5.5million which will be spent within the trust and we have a number of improvements which we plan to make over the next year."

And chief executive Andrew Liles added: "We are bidding for a new renal unit which will be the first in Surrey, and our new chief nurse takes a tough stance and will be making significant improvements on the wards.

"We have the money to spend on these things after a successful year financially."