Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Alamy Stock Photo

HSE 'still in process of identifying' health workers eligible for €1,000 pandemic bonus payment

The payment of the bonus was due to begin in April.

THE HEALTH SERVICE says it is still attempting to identify workers who are eligible for the €1,000 pandemic bonus despite being asked to begin making the payment in April.

Representative groups and the Minister for Health have raised concerns about the slow rollout of the tax-free bonus, details of which were announced last month.

Private groups have also said they have not yet received any details about how or when they will be paid, despite Stephen Donnelly saying last month that this information would be made available shortly.

The payment was first mooted late last year and formally announced in January as a gesture of gratitude for the work of healthcare employees during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Those eligible for the payment include full-time and part-time health workers who worked in settings exposed to the virus for at least four weeks between 1 March 2020 and 30 June 2021.

They include healthcare workers in nursing homes, porters and cleaners in healthcare settings, hospice workers, student nurses, staff in HSE test centres, members of the Defence Forces seconded to healthcare roles and staff in private sector nursing homes.

Both full-time and part-time workers are eligible for the payment, though the amount due to the latter has to be calculated on a pro-rata basis.

Employees who left or moved employment within the period are also eligible, though must fill in a declaration form to request payment by the end of June.

The HSE was requested on 19 April this year to begin identifying those who are eligible for the payment to begin paying them “as soon as possible”.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation reported last week that only two hospitals had paid the bonus to workers since it was signed off on, although a small number of others are expected to begin issuing payments in the coming weeks.

The union’s Director of Professional Services Tony Fitzpatrick told The Journal that the system had been “extremely slow and sluggish” since its announcement in January.

“The risk is that the good has been taken out of this payment because of that delay,” he said.

“We can’t overstate the level of fatigue that exists within the workforce, and this is something you would imagine would give morale a bit of a boost, but it’s been very ham-fisted in the way it’s been dealt with.”

He also said that the health service had been efficient at prioritising healthcare workers for vaccination during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that a similar system could apply when it comes to paying the pandemic bonus.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said last week that it is taking too long for the bonus to be paid to healthcare workers, though he believed all eligible staff will receive the payment soon.

Announcing details the bonus in April, Donnelly said the “next phase” of the payment to staff not employed by the HSE or Section 38 agencies – groups funded under the Health Act and whose staff are considered public servants – would be “announced in due course”.

A HSE circular was issued to staff contracted with the HSE and so-called Section 38 agencies, but no details about further payments have been revealed.

Nursing Homes Ireland CEO Tadgh Daly told The Journal that his group had received no details yet about the payment or about which staff would be eligible for it.

“What we’re waiting on now, and what ultimately the staff and the sector are waiting on, is a timeline and a definitive date as to when it’ll be paid,” he said.

“Even if that came out, it would give people some sense of when they’re likely to expect it.

“When it was announced in January, people were probably planning that it would be useful for making summer holidays or back-to-school costs, but there’s a level of frustration among staff that they still don’t know definitively.”

Daly added that the last information the group had received was in mid-April and that he was calling on the Government to expedite the payment and to confirm when and how nursing home staff would be paid.

In response to queries, a spokesperson for the HSE said the health service is still progressing the payment across hospitals and community services for staff who are eligible for the payment.

“It is expected that there will be an increasing number of staff who receive payment in the coming weeks,” a statement read.

“The HSE continues to be committed to ensuring that payments are made to all eligible staff as a matter of priority.”

The Department of Health, which must approve the payment for non-HSE or Section 38 workers, was contacted for comment.

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
25 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Twitruser2022
    Favourite Twitruser2022
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 6:13 AM

    Typical HSE mis-management BS, can’t even process a small bonus efficiently, needs to have red tape wrapped around it.
    Would somebody ever do a cull of all the chaff that’s employed there, how many layers of management is actually needed? The real workers such as nurses and doctors and health care assistants and porters are constantly getting shafted by management.

    419
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Stephen Barry
    Favourite Stephen Barry
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 6:49 AM

    Not to mention the catering staff who have to work over 70 hours a week in wards and they’re the ones that didn’t get it, in one hospital!!

    192
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute C
    Favourite C
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 7:59 AM

    I bet you all the staff would prefer a well organised, well managed, zero religion health care system with just one administrative HQ, a unified IT system, one set of digital of patient records, one x-ray IT system, doctors with reasonable hours, closed consultancy positions, the return of the matron, a HR group that can fill a vacancy in quickly and fill better ways to fill vacancies than hiring locum doctors and firing them before they get permanent employee status and so on and so on over a €1,000 bonus. Depressing really.

    147
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave Harris
    Favourite Dave Harris
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 8:44 AM

    @C: yes we would – except for the return of the matron which would be a backward step

    27
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute C
    Favourite C
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 4:13 PM

    @Dave Harris: I don’t agree. They were the ward managers and they were very good at managing the wards, nurses, even the doctors and they ensured everything was done properly, everything was clean etc. That management is missing.

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Bertie
    Favourite Bertie
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 8:08 AM

    More like they are still trying to find ways to disqualify more people from getting it.

    119
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute GrumpyAulFella
    Favourite GrumpyAulFella
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 9:23 AM

    @Bertie: or every Tom, Dick and Henrietta are putting their hand up for it I should imagine. I’m sure the unions have their members backs.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute der Fussballmeister
    Favourite der Fussballmeister
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 7:54 AM

    The people in test and vaccine centres at all levels have earned it. Really appreciated their efforts.

    59
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brendan Gordon
    Favourite Brendan Gordon
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 8:08 AM

    @der Fussballmeister: and yet we were the only people who were literally just doing our jobs, and knew exactly what we were getting into from the start. Don’t get me wrong, my greed is winning out and I’m taking the money, but I feel like I was well compensated for my work.
    The bonus payment does take a little sting out of the corrupt managerial bullshit I had to deal with though

    52
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Becca Laste
    Favourite Becca Laste
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 8:57 AM

    @der Fussballmeister: I worked as a swabber from November 2020 to last month and we haven’t recieved it.

    20
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
    Favourite Fiona Fitzgerald
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 12:20 PM

    @Becca Laste: Thank you both, you all made a stressful time less hard.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Epgenetics29 Declan Christy
    Favourite Epgenetics29 Declan Christy
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 7:52 AM

    Mater Private hospital made €220,000,000 from a Covid related government contract; staff dealt with Covid patients on wards.

    Staff got zero €. Consultants? Well that’s a another story. Disgraceful stuff, constantly changing management and using it as excuse among many others muted for not looking after a staff that to be honest isn’t many people who are full time. Moral is on the ground and the discourse is sullen to say the least.

    66
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SkylineSi
    Favourite SkylineSi
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 11:42 AM

    @Epgenetics29 Declan Christy: any proof for that claim?

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Epgenetics29 Declan Christy
    Favourite Epgenetics29 Declan Christy
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 12:25 PM
    7
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ciaran bolger
    Favourite Ciaran bolger
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 4:45 PM

    @Epgenetics29 Declan Christy: the article clearly states that the one group that was NOT paid were the consultants. Yet you single out consultants in your comments, why? Senior management that were paid not mentioned by you??

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Robert Johnson Fagan
    Favourite Robert Johnson Fagan
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 7:50 AM

    1000 euro!! Wow!! Amazing!! I wished I risked my life working in the front line instead of working at home. The appreciation of this staff is so overwhelming

    49
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pat Ryan
    Favourite Pat Ryan
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 10:16 AM

    @Robert Johnson Fagan: I bet you do! You could have worked as a swabber on your days off if you wanted it that much. Why didn’t you?

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Daniel Andrews
    Favourite Daniel Andrews
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 4:41 PM

    @Pat Ryan: that went completely over your head Patsy

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mary Nugent
    Favourite Mary Nugent
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 8:18 AM

    If they were over payed it would have to be paid back pronto.

    38
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave Harris
    Favourite Dave Harris
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 8:48 AM

    We were promised a payment for being stranded at work during the beast from the east snowstorm. It literally took 1 year for us to get it. Pay us the bonus, or don’t pay it- just stop all this faffing about

    31
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Will Roche
    Favourite Will Roche
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 9:35 AM

    Can we not get the head of the DAA to sort this out? He seems to be able to fast-track himself through security so fast tracking this would not be an issue for him.

    24
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave Barrett
    Favourite Dave Barrett
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 7:50 AM

    Disgraceful and disgusting behaviour.

    53
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ChronicAnxiety
    Favourite ChronicAnxiety
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 9:04 AM

    A lot of Junior medical staff change hospitals every 6 months, some every 3months,- they will be moved to hospitals who will have already paid the bonus to their staff, and so will be excluded from the payment.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Murray Mitchell
    Favourite Murray Mitchell
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 11:13 AM

    Wonder when the government are going to acknowledge the contribution of the country’s truck & bus drivers who worked long hours at the height of the pandemic to ensure other essential workers got to work, and made sure the general population were able to buy food and fuel.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Epgenetics29 Declan Christy
    Favourite Epgenetics29 Declan Christy
    Report
    Jun 2nd 2022, 12:24 PM
    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 0:00
 
1x
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions off, selected
      News in 60 seconds