NHS manager in line for £1 million pay out Many of the biggest payouts have yet to come. Health authority chief executives are in line to walk away with payments of as much as £1 million within months, if they do not take a job in the new structures, the Sunday Telegraph can disclose. Sir Ian Carruthers, 61, the chief executive of South of England SHA, who earns more than £200,000 will be able to walk away with £954,000, made up of £405,000 in redundancy and a tax-free lump sum from his £2.6 million retirement fund. Meanwhile, up to 150 Primary Care Trust chief executives will be able to take redundancy payments of up to £300,000, as well as lump sums from pensions for those taking retirement. Critics said the health service could not afford the payments - and expressed fear that many managers who claim generous packages will return to take well-paid jobs after the re-organisation. The controversial reforms, which divided the Coalition and met a backlash from organisations representing doctors and nurses, were drawn up by Andrew Lansley as Health Secretary before he was demoted in September's reshuffle. Under the changes, 152 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and 10 SHAs which supervise healthcare are being replaced by 212 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). Although the old structures are led by administrators, and the new bodies will be run by doctors, the CCGs are now hiring managers on six-figure salaries to join their teams. Meanwhile, a new national body in charge of the new NHS system is recruiting 25 directors on salaries of more than £150,000. The new statistics from the Department of Health (DoH) 's annual accounts show that since the plans were announced in 2010, £946 million has been spent on "exit packages" for those who have lost jobs amid the restructuring. In total, 1,341 health service officials have received redundancy payments of more than £100,000 in the past two years - including 438 officials who were paid at least £150,000, with 173 receiving £200,000 or more. They include David Stout, director of finance and communications at North East SHA, who received a redundancy payment of at least £320,000 during 2011/12 when his £165,000 role was abolished. Prof Aiden Mullen, director of nursing on the same board, earning £130,000, was paid more than £245,000 in redundancy during the last financial year, official NHS reports show. The payments are being made as the NHS attempts to make £20 billion worth of efficiency savings by 2015. Although the DoH has been spared the austerity cuts imposed on other parts of the public sector, it is having to find money from within its own budget to meet the rising costs of an ageing population. Experts said many of the most expensive pay-offs have yet to hit health service budgets. In March, 150 PCT chief executives will be entitled to lump sums of up to £300,000 when their organisations are abolished, if they have not been given jobs of equivalent seniority in the new structures. The NHS redundancy deal gives staff one more month's pay for every year worked - four times the legal minimum - and only requires that they do not work for the health service for one month after their employment ends. Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive of The Patients Association, described the payments as "shocking and excessive." She said: "At a time when £20 billion is being cut from the NHS budget, waiting times are rising and treatments are being denied patients will expect all resources to be channelled to frontline care, not the pockets of departing managers." Jon Restell, chief executive of Managers in Partnership, the trade union for health service managers, said there was growing evidence that the new structures had been left with high vacancy rates - meaning they would "inevitably" end up hiring back those who had taken redundancy payments. He said: "The Government's reforms have unnecessarily plunged parts of the NHS into chaos, which will cost the taxpayer dearly." Andy Burnham, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary, said: "These figures lift the lid on the sheer scale of the waste of money resulting from the Government's NHS reorganisation." He said it was "scandalous" that almost £1bn had been spent on pay-offs to managers who could now return to take jobs in the new structures. The Telegraph has previously uncovered a string of previous cases where executives took redundancy payments from health service, only to be re-employed on higher rates. They included Derek Smith, who received a £300,000 pay-off from Hammersmith Hospitals trust before working as a management consultant, charging the health service a daily rate of £3,400 for 44 days' work running Dorset County Hospital Foundation trust during 2010/11. The Coalition has said that although the restructuring of the NHS will cost a total of £1.6 bn - largely because of redundancy payments - the reduced management costs of the new system will save far more in the long-term. A DoH spokesman said the redundancy payments were "one-off costs." He said: "By investing in these changes we will be able to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and free up extra resources - £5.5 billion during this Parliament and £1.5 billion every year thereafter - for patient care." A spokesperson for NHS South of England said that any redundancies made as a result of the NHS reforms would follow nationally agreed terms and conditions.