March 27th 2024
Over 27,000 health workers to receive one-off payment
In a bid to try and ease mounting pressures, the government have announced healthcare workers will receive two one-off payments worth up to £3,000.
Announced by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) at the beginning this week, the payments, which are worth at least £1,665, will benefit community nurses, sexual health workers, speech-and-language therapists, physiotherapists, and other frontline workers at non-NHS organisations.
The announcement has come after NHS staff received two one-off payments alongside a 5% pay rise last year. However, these payments only applied to individuals that were directly employed by NHS organisations.
Forming part of the wider NHS pay deal, the DHSC said that one of the new payments was specifically intended to recognise the efforts healthcare workers had made to cut waiting lists.
Victoria Atkins, the health and social care secretary, said: ‘I hugely value the hard work of all our healthcare staff, and those working in non-NHS organisations offer vital support to patients.
‘I want to ensure that eligible staff receive these payments, which is why we chose to deliver this funding and why we have taken the decision to relax the financial eligibility criteria employers must meet.
‘It will ensure that hardworking staff and the organisations they work for can fully benefit from the NHS pay deal.’
In addition, Patricia Marquis, Royal College of Nursing director for England, said the decision was ‘a huge leap forward’.
Patricia said: ‘They deliver NHS care and deserve the same treatment. We will ask for assurance that the financial amounts are worth the same.
‘Nursing staff providing publicly funded care, on whatever contract, must be paid this award. Waiting for 12 months added insult to injury and the department must learn never to repeat this.’
Image: Rusty Watson
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