NHS fatcat given £190,000 to quit after public outrage at new job after death probe failings
Katrina Percy was handed a year's pay to leave Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust - but walked straight into a higher-paid job with the company
AN NHS boss whose trust did not probe unexpected deaths has been given £190,000 to quit.
Katrina Percy was handed the equivalent of a year’s pay to leave Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust.
Critics slammed the huge payoff as a “reward for failure”. Ms Percy, 43, quit as head of the mental health trust in August.
But she went right into another senior post at Southern Health that had not existed and for which she was the only candidate.
Health sources said bosses quickly realised her job had become “untenable” and she has been given £190,000 to step down.
She was criticised after her trust failed to probe hundreds of deaths.
It accepted responsibility for the death of Connor Sparrowhawk, 18, who drowned in a bath at a unit in Oxford in 2013.
His mother, Dr Sara Ryan, said: “She shouldn’t have lasted as long as she did and the payout is scandalous.”
John O’Connell, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “This golden goodbye can only be seen as a reward for failure.”
“Not only is it an insult to those who have suffered or lost a loved one because of mismanagement or incompetence, it is also slap in the face for taxpayers who will be picking up the bill.”
Joyce Robins from Patient Concern called it “disgraceful”, adding, “She is being given more than the PM gets paid for doing a terrible job."
While Marjorie Wallace, chief exec of mental health charity SANE, said: “We are shocked that Katrina Percy should not have had the decency to resign earlier and be accountable for the severe distress her failure to listen to families and interact with patients has caused.
“With so many deaths going uninvestigated, her settlement should go directly to the families who never learned what happened when their relative was under her care.”
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Southern Health said it had “correspondence from the public, patients and families expressing concerns” about Ms Percy’s job and said “it is no longer possible for Katrina to continue”.
An NHS Improvement spokesman suggested the payoff was unavoidable as there had been “no legal grounds” to dismiss her.