More than 31,000 nurses and other frontline health workers are still awaiting payment of the bonus that was promised by the Government in January.
Nearly one in three frontline HSE workers has yet to receive the €1,000 pandemic bonus, six months after it was announced by the Government, new figures have revealed.
More than 31,000 nurses and other frontline health workers are still awaiting payment of the bonus that was promised by the Government in January. The latest figures provided by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, in response to a parliamentary question from his party colleague, Éamon Ó Cuív, show that 68,843 HSE staff had received the bonus as of July 8.
Around 100,000 of the health authority’s frontline workers are eligible for the payment, meaning that approximately one-third of the intended recipients have yet to receive the pandemic recognition payment. The failure to process the bonus in the six months since it was announced has been described as “utterly ludicrous” by Labour Party health spokesman Duncan Smith.
“The delay is a massive failure of leadership, and it is disrespectful to our frontline healthcare workers who went above and beyond throughout the pandemic,” he said.
“This payment was the very least that the Government could do, but even this simple payment has become a disaster of mismanagement and turned a potentially good-news story into a bad one.”
Last month, Minister Donnelly said the delay was partially due to engagement between the department, HSE and representative bodies; but acknowledged that the bonus needed to be paid “very quickly”.
“What happened after the Government decision is there was quite an extensive period of discussions between the HSE, the department and the representative bodies,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the health authority is moving ahead with plans to purchase 32 wooden benches to commemorate those who died of Covid-19 at hospitals and healthcare facilities around the country.
It published a tender this week for the design, manufacture and delivery of the memorial seats, two of which will be provided to each hospital group and Community Healthcare Organisation area by the end of November.
The benches will be comprised of a steel support frame and wooden or wood-effect slats, along with a plate engraved with a short message that has yet to be confirmed. The seats are likely to be black, brown or dark grey in colour.
The precise location of the 32 memorial benches is unclear, as only two will be provided to each hospital group, which contain between four and 11 individual hospitals. CHO areas also span as many as five counties and will only receive two benches each.
The tender documents specify that the seats must be at least two metres long, should be resistant to vandalism and adverse weather, and must be capable of supporting up to 300kg in weight. Interested parties have until August 3 to respond to the tender, and the memorial benches must be delivered and installed by the end of November, according to the documents.