Elmer Mulder, the former head of the VU university teaching hospital, was given a pay-off of €433,000 when he was forced to quit in August after just eight months in the job, according to the NRC.

The golden handshake came on top of his basic salary of €229,000 plus a €65,000 car, the paper says.

Mulder was let go after a string of problems at the hospital. These included staff conflicts in the lung surgery department, problems with billing and his agreement to host a reality tv show in the hospital’s accident and emergency department.