Dutch hospitals are finding it extremely difficult to fill senior executive positions because of the government’s €181,000 ceiling on public sector pay, the Financieele Dagblad said on Friday.

The ceiling, introduced to stop public sector managers earning more than government ministers, is preventing hospitals from bringing in people from outside the public sector or employing highly paid medical specialists as directors, the paper said.

The paper bases its claim on conversations with hospitals, headhunters and various health sector organisations.

‘It is not about salary alone, but the value placed on health care managers,’ headhunter Klaus Schmitt told the paper. ‘The manager of a large hospital is too easily dismissed as only being after the money.’

In particular, hospitals are finding it hard to attract directors with financial or IT experience, the paper said.