ABOUT £245,000 a year was spent on the services of a temporary health chief.

Howard Perry, NHS South East Essex’s interim chief operating officer of Community Healthcare, was recruited from September 2009, until last month.

His wage was paid to consultancy firm Capital Resourcing, which offered Mr Perry’s services. It is not clear how the salary was split between the agency and Mr Perry.

The cost compares with the trust’s chief executive, Andrew Pike, who picks up about £180,000 a year, and Prime Minister David Cameron, who is paid £142,000 annually.

The trust is in the middle of a merger with its counterpart, NHS South West Essex, as it desperately tries to save cash and cut costs.

Robert Oxley, campaign manager of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s an abject failure by the trust to have an interim executive on the payroll for two years at such an extortionate cost to taxpayers.

“Taxpayers and patients expect their money to be spent on good healthcare, not on a huge salary for an NHS fat cat.

“This has cost the taxpayer a fortune.”

Community Healthcare is responsible for organising services such as nursing care at people’s homes, as well as physiotherapy and rehabilitation.

In total, NHS South East Essex has 23 directors.

Details of its directors’ salaries, categorised in bands of £5,000, were revealed in the trust’s newly-published accounts for 2010/11.

The figures show Capital Resourcing was paid between £241,000 and £245,000 for providing Mr Perry’s services.

In comparison, Mr Pike earned between £172,000 and £180,000. The next highest-paid director was Russ Platt, director of commissioning and contracting, who picked up between £111,000 and £115,000.

Mr Perry also received between £171,000 and £175,000 for the seven months of the 2009/10 financial year during which he was employed by the trust.

That means Capital Resourcing was paid a total of between £412,000 and £420,000 between September 2009 and March 2011 – the equivalent of about £964 per working day.

The role was ditched from August 1, this year.

A trust spokesman said: “The salary for Mr Perry was comparatively high because he was not directly an NHS employee. “He was an employee of an external company, outside of the NHS, and was performing the role on an interim basis. “This post was a transitional role, to support the Trans-forming Community Services programme. This role no longer exists within the trust.”