A MEDICAL commissioner who has been accused of having a political conflict of interest is the highest earner among his peers, it has emerged.

Dr Mark Hayes, the chief clinical officer for the Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group, who is also the Labour parliamentary candidate for Selby and Ainsty, earned more than between £180 to £185,000 last year – making him the highest paid leader of the 23 new commissioning groups in Yorkshire.

Nigel Adams, Tory MP for Selby and Ainsty, said Dr Hayes earned more than the Prime Minister and seven times the average pay of his constituents.

He said: “It’s an outrageous sum of money, particularly when Dr Hayes opts not to take part in important decision-making votes because of his political ambition. It’s an extraordinarily large amount of money but when the individual then opts out of critical decision making, I can’t think of a more clear conflict of interest.”

Dr Hayes abstained to vote in a vote on IVF – which meant York remained the only place in the UK not to offer a single round of IVF to couples. In a statement, NHS Vale of York CCG said the salary was in line with similar posts. It said Dr Hayes provided expert knowledge, guidance and leadership to the commissioning and service improvement teams and had significant experience.

Any possible conflicts of interest would be dealt with deputy chief clinical officer who has been appointed from within the existing GP representation on the CCG’s Governing Body and bears no additional cost to the CCG.