THE TOTAL amount paid to temporary hospital boss Derek Smith has been revealed as nearly £400,000 – for just 10 months’ work.

The Echo discovered last year that the interim chief executive cost Dorset County Hospital £248,081 for his first 97 days’ work during the 2009/10 financial year.

The revelation caused an outcry and was reported across the national media.

Mr Smith and his interim leadership team have since been replaced by a permanent executive team that is making progress into the hospital’s debts and hopes to achieve a surplus at the end of the current financial year.

Hospital accounts for the 2010/11 financial year have now been released that show for the remaining 44 days for which Mr Smith was employed at the hospital he was paid a further £139,179 as well as claiming £10,793 in expenses.

Mr Smith’s total payments of £387,220 spanned his period of employment from September 2009 to July last year and covered 141 days work – meaning he was paid at a rate of £2,689 a day.

Interim director of finance Terry Tonks – who was paid £222,106 for 158 days work in 2009/10 – was employed for a further 43 days before the end of his contract in June last year and was paid another £58,515.

The hospital also paid out £61,960 to interim director of human resources Tracey Peters for 86 days work in 2010/11, after she was paid £115,491 for 174 days’ work the previous year.

The hospital’s annual report says that the total cost for the interim directors in 2010/11 was £259,654 and a further £18,090 in expenses compared to £696,350 the previous year and £49,136 in expenses.

One experienced hospital staff member, who asked not to be named, said: “I think it’s obscene to be honest when you think of what nurses get and what they pay agency staff.”

However, the employee said staff seemed more focused now on the future of the hospital rather than worrying about what Mr Smith was paid in the past.

She added: “I think the new chief executive had made a big difference and I think people are more interested in what’s going to be happening next year.

“I don’t think anything like that will happen again at Dorset County Hospital, but unfortunately it’s still happening again at other big organisations around the country.”

The report reveals that Jean O’Callaghan, who was appointed as permanent chief executive in September last year, received a salary of between £80,000 and £85,000 for her first seven months in the role.

Sue Sutherland, who stood in as chief executive between Mr Smith leaving in July last year and Mrs O’Callaghan’s arrival, received between £25,000 and £30,000 for her two-month stint.

The hospital’s end of year accounts show that the Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which started 2010/11 with a deficit of £5.1million, had reduced its deficit to £3.3million by the end of the financial year – improving on its target of a £3.5million deficit.

When the Echo contacted Durrow Ltd – the consultancy firm through which Mr Smith was employed at the hospital – a spokesman indicated that Mr Smith did not wish to comment on his earnings.