Number of nursing teams still waiting for pandemic bonus

Kenneth Fox

Over 15 community intervention team nurses in SouthDoc and 38 community intervention team nurses in CareDoc in Wexford, Waterford, Wicklow, Kilkenny, Carlow and Tipperary have yet to receive the pandemic recognition payment.

That is according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).

The INMO industrial relations officer, Liam Conway said: “It has been over twenty months since the Government announced that patient-facing healthcare workers would receive a €1,000 pandemic recognition payment.

"Over 15 specialised Community Intervention nurses working in SouthDoc in Cork and 38 nurses working in Care Doc across the Midlands and the South East have yet to receive this payment.

“It is completely unsatisfactory to this union that the nurses in this facility who provide outstanding services to their community have not been given any indication as to when they will receive this payment from their employer and, indeed the State.

"These nurses put their lives at risk, like so many of their colleagues across the healthcare system did, when we knew so little about Covid.

“Our members feel extremely let down by this situation. Their employers are not in a position to pay SouthDoc and CareDoc the pandemic bonus directly.

Mr Conway said the HSE has not responded to this issue and said they are the "only community intervention team nurses in the country who have yet to receive the pandemic recognition payment."

“Nurses in public hospitals and in private nursing homes have long received their payments from the State. Why are the nurses in SouthDoc and CareDoc being left behind? They fall under the criteria for the payment."

He said it has been over 615 days since this payment was first announced.”