SENIOR health managers and consultants are being provided with luxury cars including Jaguars, Mercedes and even Porsches at a cost of millions to the National Health Service.

As hospitals across Britain face job cuts, new figures show that executives are receiving subsidies of up to £6,600 a year to lease cars that they can subsequently buy at a discount.

All maintenance costs are included in the agreements, while some authorities and hospital trusts also cover the costs of insurance premiums.

The bill for leasing the 35,000 cars for NHS staff is now close to £90m, while the cost for new leases rose by more than 3.5% last year, according to government figures. It coincides with a growing cash crisis in the NHS with total deficits estimated at more than £800m and trusts cancelling operations and threatening more than 5,000 job cuts.

Katherine Murphy, of the Patients Association, a charity campaigning for a better health service, said the issuing of luxury cars was “morally wrong”.

“Here we are with the health service in severe financial crisis with deficits everywhere, redundancies threatened and wards closing and these executives, who are on hugely inflated salaries anyway, are driving around in lovely top-of-the-range cars obtained with NHS money,” she said. “It is morally wrong and gives completely the wrong message.”

NHS officials say the “company car” perks enable the service to compete with the private sector. However, many health trusts eschew such schemes as an unnecessary expense.

Last year the government tried to rein in the cost by paying outside consultants — at an estimated £2,000 a day — to review the scheme nationally. Despite the exercise, the average annual cost of leasing each company car rose by £175.

The Department of Health admitted the extra expenditure following the consultants’ exercise was because the vehicles now being bought by the NHS were of a “generally higher specification”.

In the 12 months until March this year, figures show that the NHS has started new lease-hires on 428 Audis, 260 BMWs, 101 Mercedes, 35 Jaguars, 28 Land Rovers, 88 Saabs, 10 Lexus and even a Porsche.

Masterlease, one of nine lease-hire companies that have agreements with the NHS to supply vehicles over three-year contracts, is providing two Porsches to executives. A spokesman confirmed the company is leasing a Porsche Cayenne — a 4x4 model with prices ranging from £35,560 to £81,565 — and a Boxster two-seater sports model, which retails at £32,640, to the NHS.

Because of the preferential rates negotiated centrally through the NHS’s purchasing and supply agency, a Cayenne can be leased for about £6,000 a year while a Boxster costs about £5,000 annually.

Most NHS staff who are entitled to company vehicles are given an allowance based either on their status and salary or the number of miles they drive. They are then entitled to choose any car they like.

If their choice exceeds their allowance, they can top up the NHS subsidy with their own money. Other costs, such as road tax, are often paid by the driver, who is also sometimes expected to contribute towards the insurance. Petrol is paid for by staff and reimbursed through claims for mileage. Some trusts and health authorities are providing such generous allowances, however, that topping up is not necessary.

Although Masterlease and the health department refused to divulge the identities of the Porsche drivers, the names of some beneficiaries of the schemes have emerged.

David Sissling, chief executive of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland Strategic Health Authority, drives a 5-series BMW, which the authority helps to pay for by contributing £4,300 a year towards its lease.

The health authority provides cars for its executive directors and senior managers, irrespective of whether they need them. Its policy document on leasing vehicles suggests some cars that directors might like to choose, such as a BMW 525d SE or an Audi A6 2.7 TDi.

Ian Renwick, acting chief executive of the Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, drives a Jaguar thanks to a car scheme that also provides more than a third of the vehicle’s insurance costs.

David Flory, chief executive of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Strategic Health Authority, drives a Lexus that taxpayers subsidise to the amount of £4,000 a year.

Other trusts and authorities with generous schemes include Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority (CLSHA), which offers its chief executive and executive directors an Audi A6 2.4 SE Multitronic, which costs £30,000 new.

Colin Knowles, who runs a fleet management company that oversees 150 health trusts and authorities, said the Cumbria authority was losing money because of its car scheme. “We told them that we could save them about £1,000 a year per car by running a more efficient scheme,” he said.

The CLSHA has so far declined to take Knowles up on his offer to manage its fleet of about 20 vehicles.

Many NHS bodies have rejected company cars as too costly. A spokesman for the South East London Strategic Health Authority said: “Most directors are happy to use public transport.”

The health department said the money spent on its fleet did not represent the true costs to trusts since some of the money was recouped from drivers.