DISGRACED health boss Clive Uren, who quit after a scathing report into the way his hospital was run, will receive a pay-off of £76,000.

Mr Uren, whose management of Eastbourne District General Hospital was heavily criticised, will also be given a new job for six months within the NHS.

Details of the temporary post have yet to be finalised, but it will not be as a chief executive and will not be in Eastbourne.

Mr Uren, who earned £90,000 as chief executive of the EDGH, resigned over a Government report which slated nursing care and criticised management that left nurses and the public in

the dark.

The trust's chairman, John Barkshire, also resigned.

Solicitors acting on Mr Uren's behalf reached a "compromise deal" with the trust.

Trust spokesman Chris Randall said last night: "This is a compromise deal, a package agreed by Mr Uren's solicitors, the trust's solicitors and external auditors.

"It was the most cost-

effective deal for the trust and for the tax-paying public. The alternative could have cost the public considerably more."

Also under negotiation is how much Mr Uren will now

be paid for his new six-month job and who will fund his salary. But Mr Randall added: "Mr Uren is no longer employed by Eastbourne Hospitals NHS Trust."

Anne Bolter, the trust's new chairman, said: "There is justifiable public interest in this matter, which is why we have taken the unusual step of publishing the financial details in advance of next year's annual report.

"I must emphasise that the sum negotiated represents the lowest possible cost to the NHS within the terms of Mr Uren's contract."

Barbara Stocking, regional director of the NHS Executive, which produced the report after inspecting the EDGH, said: "Clive Uren did

the honourable thing in taking responsibility for what happened at Eastbourne and standing down from his post as chief executive. The trust can now move forward under new leadership.

"While the report was critical of Mr Uren's management of the trust, that is no reason why he should not be treated justly. The secondment recognises that Mr Uren, with his long experience of the NHS, still has something to offer, although in a different post and in another place."

Although the pay-off deal was the cheapest way forward for the trust, news of the settlement sparked anger last night.

Lewes MP Norman Baker, whose constituency includes Polegate, near Eastbourne, said: "If this was the lowest cost solution then that must be welcomed, but I question what the NHS is doing signing contracts such as this. This money could have funded a great deal. There are many people in my constituency waiting for hip operations, for example."

Roy Freeman, whose wife Pauline, 54, of Little Common, Bexhill, bled to death after a routine hysterectomy, said: "I think this is a huge amount of money to give a man who provided the service that he did."

The trust at first refused to reveal how much Mr Uren was in line to receive.

But there was a public outcry over the secrecy.

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