Despite unprecedented pressures on NHS spending, it has been reported that hospital chief executives have received £35 million in pay rises.

An investigation by a newspaper found bosses enjoyed pay hikes of 6%, well above those of frontline staff.

Some executives earned more than £1 million last year, while directors at a handful of the worst-performing hospitals received pay packages of up to £5,000 a day, the newspaper said.

A total of 47 hospital bosses pocketed more than £400,000 last year - putting them in the same pay league as top City traders, the paper found.

Nearly 1,000 NHS bosses now earn £100,000 or more a year when their pension contributions are taken into account - all funded by the taxpayer.

Despite the funding crisis, the number of bosses with pay packages worth more than the Prime Minister's rose by 30% last year to nearly 600, the newspaper said.

The average chief executive in England now takes home a salary alone of £185,255 - far higher than the Prime Minister's salary of £142,500.

Politicians have vowed to tackle the pay schemes and have called for an investigation into how public money is spent.

Last year, the Government decided not to accept a pay review body (PRB) recommendation for a 1% increase for all NHS staff working in England.

Andy Burnham, the Shadow Health Secretary, delivers his speech to delegates on the final day of the Labour Party Conference on September 24, 2014 in Manchester, England.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham told Sky News: "This is an illustration of a Government that's got its priorities wrong on the NHS.

"We have seen senior pay rising above inflation, when staff have been denied a basic pay rise. Those staff are working flat-out day after day. This explains why morale is just so devastatingly low in the NHS at the moment."

He added: "We have to have an investigation into this. If there has been any abuse, it has to be tackled.

"But, more than that, we just need fairness all the way down, and I've said that we will bring back the independent pay review body, so that we get fairness into staff pay again.

"To have staff denied 1%, when it was recommended and the Government had promised it, was a kick in the teeth for staff who are pulling out all the stops to keep the NHS going in difficult times."