The salary is almost double that of his predecessor and comes at a time when the cash-strapped NHS is shedding hundreds of Wolverhampton jobs.

But he claimed the bumper rise reflected new responsibilities and more time commitments.

The 59-year-old management consultant became chairman of the city’s Primary Care Trust (PCT), which pays for and provides health care, this week.

He especially wants to target issues such as teenage pregnancy, smoking, heart disease and sexually transmitted infections.

An he wants to spearhead a drive to tackle the widening gap in public health inequalities between the deprived and the affluent during his four years at the helm.

He said: “My role is very much about making sure the operation works successfully.

“Quite clearly we have to make sure we operate within a balanced budget and that is difficult to say, because you don’t want people to think we have brought in a bunch of grey-haired, grey-suited accountants.

“But it is important to say because if we didn’t, we would be failing the people of Wolverhampton.”

Mr Picken, who has been a non-executive director of the PCT since its creation in 2002, said he was looking forward to the challenges ahead.

He added: “There is unprecedented amounts of money coming into the health service from this Government so it is a good time to be here. I can see an ability for there to be change and to make a difference.”

Mr Picken is one of nine new chairmen appointed by Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt at 17 regional PCTs in the West Midlands.

He is also a magistrate, a lay assessor for the General Medical Council and member of the Royal College of Physicians training sub-committee. He is a lay partner of the Health Professions Council and chairman of the Accord Housing Association.

By Health Correspondent Andy Rea

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