THE revelation that the interim chief executive who had to ride in to rescue the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group picked up more than £100,000 for less than four months’ work is another worrying development at this fledgling organisation.

Ian Wilson was drafted in after Dr Stephen Richards, the original chief executive, admitted that his role covering both administrative and medical responsibilities, as originally envisaged, could not be done by one person.

Fair play to Dr Richards for recognising this, but as a result of the clearly flawed way the organisation was set up, the taxpayer – that’s you – has now had to shell out thousands of pounds unnecessarily.

Defenders of Mr Wilson’s pay package will say that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys and there are no grounds for questioning how he has discharged his duties.

But that would gloss over what can only now be classed as expensive incompetence by those who set up this body to replace the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust.

The OCCG has a budget of £635m and it is not unreasonable to expect that when the decision was made to abolish the PCT that its replacement would be organised properly.

Already it is in financial choppy waters and cuts are planned – including free hospital transport for some patients.

A more modest pay package for Mr Wilson package would not save those services, but is this whole saga not an insight into the largesse, once again, among NHS officials?

They seem to have little problem splashing your money around to correct their bunglings, but one suspects they may not be quite so free and easy if the money was coming out of their bank accounts.

Admittedly, the NHS is a hugely complex organisation but we pay our taxes for public services to be competently organised and properly run, because, unlike our transactions with the private sector, we don’t get a refund for failure.