A FORMER Bolton health boss was given a pay-off of more than £300,000, it has been revealed.

The payment, which has been branded “immoral”, was given to the former chief executive of Bolton’s primary care trust when the service was disbanded.

Tim Evans was paid £324,000 after he was laid off in November last year in a shake-up of NHS services across Greater Manchester.

He picked up a £140,000 lump sum, with the rest being paid toward his pension.

The changes were introduced as part of a Government drive to redesign NHS services and replace primary care trusts with consortia run by GPs, called clinical commissioning groups.

Mr Evans trained as a civil service accountant before joining the NHS in 1992.

He joined Bolton Primary Care Trust (PCT) in July 2005 and as chief executive was paid a salary of between £130,000 to £135,000 per year. Cllr Andy Morgan, who sits on Bolton Council’s health, overview and scrutiny committee, said he was shocked at the amount of the payoff.

He said: “He’s done nothing wrong — but that’s more than some people in this town will earn in a lifetime.

“It’s the system that’s broken.

We’ve come to a place where we’re cutting services but people are coming away with that kind of money. “It’s no wonder the country is in trouble financially.

It’s immoral.”

Harry Hanley, from Bolton’s branch of Unison, said: “That would have paid for eight highly-skilled, top pay band nurses for a year.

“Or it could have paid for cancer treatment for someone.

“It’s short sighted. It’s been happening at PCTs all over the country where they’re getting rid of chief executives and if you do the maths that’s millions of pounds.” Mr Evans worked as a management consultant after leaving his post and then took a job as chief finance officer at Hawke’s Bay District Health Board in New Zealand.

A spokesman for NHS Greater Manchester said the move to replace chief executives would save money in the long run.

She said: “It was only right to make a redundancy payment in this case, which was a contractual entitlement based on many years of service to the NHS.

“Funding for any such redundancies was set aside as part of the health service reforms, and it is therefore misleading to suggest that these funds could have been used for anything else.”

Mr Evans said: “I was running a successful primary care trust and after five years as chief executive had received the highest performance score possible in my most recent annual personal performance appraisal.

“NHS Bolton was financially sound and had achieved great success with innovative achievements such as the Big Bolton Health Check and the construction of Bolton One.”