HEALTH chiefs say they will reveal details of an “exit” package paid to a former chief officer who spent months on the sick – but not until April next year at the earliest.

Martin Phillips left Darlington Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) on April 30 this year after taking voluntary redundancy.

He had been on extended sick leave and his lengthy absence led to calls for transparency amid questions about his contract and what payments he was entitled to.

The Northern Echo submitted a Freedom of Information request to the CCG – an organisation which commissions local health services and has an annual budget of £146m – in a bid to establish the exact financial terms of his departure.

In response it said the information was being held with a view to publication some time in April or May next year when its annual report comes out.

This was to ensure that it was a “properly planned and managed process [so] that the data is accurate once it is placed in the public domain”.

It said to release the information earlier could “potentially [result] in reduced quality of the final data”.

The Echo also asked how many days sick leave were attributable to Mr Phillips in 2014/15 and 2015/16, but was told that as it was personal information it was exempt to disclosure.

The CCG’s most recent annual report revealed that sickness among its staff grew from 35 days in 2014 to 213 days last year with the increase “being explained due to the long term sickness absence of one member of staff”.

In the report it says it provides an “honest and transparent response” when it is scrutinised or challenged about any aspect of its work.

Mr Phillips first joined the NHS in 1984 and spent almost 30 years working in the public health sector in the North-East.

His annual pay package, including expenses and pension benefits, ranged from £95,000 to £110,000.

He was replaced temporarily by Ali Wilson, who was later made accountable officer on a permanent basis.

Councillor Heather Scott, leader of the Conservative Party on Darlington Borough Council and a member of the authority’s health and partnerships scrutiny committee, said she had been told by the CCG that it had to abide by the terms of Mr Phillips’ NHS contract of employment.

She added that Ali Wilson, who previously held a similar post in Hartlepool, was a “very good appointment”, but said she had wider concerns about attempts to reconfigure CCGs across the region.