Ambulance boss has no plans to reduce time on East of England Service

Anthony Marsh was given a controversial £50,000 a year pay rise for taking on struggling East of England Ambulance Service in addition to running the West Midlands trust earlier this year. He spends around three days a week in the East of England, staying in hotels and uses a taxi service to get between the two areas. He has spent £30,000 in accommodation and transport bills since July 2013 but has told how he'd rather have his 'own bed'.

Mr Marsh has spent around 90 nights in hotels over the past 16 months after taking over the chief executive role at the struggling East of England Ambulance Service.

See also: I'm working too much, says £232k West Midlands Ambulance boss.

And despite West Bromwich MP Tom Watson saying the arrangement was 'unsustainable' and junior health minister Dan Poulter criticising his salary, Mr Marsh has said his work in the two roles will continue.

He said: "I will continue to help support that organisation (East of England Ambulance Service). How long, I haven't determined, but we are making good progress and improvements are being made.

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"I haven't paid consideration to what is happening in medium and long term, I've been asked to go and support the service and replicate there the operating system we have in the West Midlands, which by all results and any measure, we are performing well."

Asked how he felt over the publicity over the earnings, he said: "It is disappointing, I don't set my salary.

See also: £525 for ambulance boss' journey to work.

"At West Midlands we have the best performing ambulance service in the country, that doesn't happen by accident. We have the highest ratio of paramedics, that doesn't happen by accident. We have the best emergency fleet, we have the best control room and IT infrastructure.

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"As a consequence of the high regard West Midlands Ambulance Service is held in, as well as complaints being down and complements being up, that is why I have been asked to lead the transformation of East of England Ambulance Service."

He added: "If you think about the hotels, I don't benefit from those, I'd rather be in my own bed at night. The travelling, staying in a hotel, it incurs expenditure, but I can't do my job by travelling five and a half hours each way, each day and concentrate on running two huge ambulance services."