£1.9m pension pot for under-fire NHS chief Sir David Nicholson

The 57-year-old has been under intense pressure to quit his role as chief executive of NHS England since the Francis report into serious failings at Stafford Hospital.

Campaigners today welcomed news of his retirement but some hit out at his reported pension pot.

Sir David was at the helm of the regional health authority responsible for Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust for part of the period which later came under scrutiny from the Francis Inquiry. He was in that job from 2005 to 2006. He will step down from his role next March.

Julie Bailey, from campaign group Cure The NHS, said: "We're pleased that he's going so we can start to cure the NHS. But we're disappointed at having to wait until March. He should've gone now."

She said his pension pot, revealed in March last year, and knighthood could send the wrong signal.

"He will retire with his knighthood and a huge pension pot of £1.9 million," she added.

"He'll have a happy retirement unlike us who are left with the memories of having to watch our loved ones suffer at the hands of the NHS."

The Unite union welcomed news of Sir David's retirement. Rachael Maskell, national officer, said: "He should have resigned earlier this year over his role in failing to tackle the abuse of patients at Mid Staffordshire."

She said he would be remembered for the 'Nicholson challenge' he set to the NHS to bring in efficiency savings of £20 billion by 2015.

Sir David has worked in the NHS for 35 years, with a career that has seen him become chief executive of several bodies including the Shropshire and Staffordshire Strategic Health Authority. He took on his current role in 2007 and is believed to have a salary of around £211,000 a year.

Senior ministers and the Prime Minister backed him in the wake of the Francis Report, despite calls for him to be held accountable.

In his resignation letter, Sir David said he 'still passionately believes in what the NHS England has set out to do' and says new ways of working are now beginning to take shape.

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt praised Sir David and said under his leadership, waiting times had fallen, infection rates have reduced and mixed sex wards are at an all-time low.