Nicola Sturgeon announced 500 quid to be paid to all scottish nhs staff and health care workers as a thank you for work during covid.
Absolutely fantastic to hear that, and thoroughly deserved.
With a nice little dig asking Johnson to make sure its not taxed as she does not have the power 🙂
Brilliant speech from what I read. I particularly liked this bit
I’ve done my best to get these decisions as right as I can.
And I’ve had the support of an outstanding team of ministers and advisers.
I can never thank them enough.
But I know we’ve made mistakes.
And the responsibility for that is mine and mine alone.
I feel it deeply, and I always will.
But I feel immense gratitude, too.
I want to thank everyone across the country for bearing the sacrifices asked of you with such strength and patience, and for the love and care you have shown each other.
Too right, and well earned and deserved by all I am sure! This is what a leader who cares looks like.
As a nurse i'll get that. Its a nice gesture but I feel a bit conflicted about it.
There's no word about the domestic staff at the hospital getting it, they have worked just as hard to keep services running, and with the same risk. So have shopworkers and many others.
In addition while I have been working I have also been getting paid, unlike a lot of people and I see that there will be a much smaller grant for those experiencing hardship of £100 to 'help them feed their kids'.
Like I say its's a nice gesture and its nice to be appreciated, and I do like free money, but I feel uncomfortable about it.
I have to say I am with sweepy. I was never in any actual risk
My Mrs and her colleagues were definitely at risk, with several of them becoming infected and one still suffering 8 months on.
Thats the issue - it has to be a universal payment and for sure folk like your wife deserve it but it sits poorly with me because of my situation - full pay a secure job and no extra work or risk
I assumed all nhs staff got it, including cleaners etc. But then again they may be outsourced.
I have to say I am with sweepy. I was never in any actual risk
Fair enough, but I'm assuming if the shit had really hit the fan you would have been mucking in. Either way I don't begrudge nhs workers a bonus, beats token clapping that's for sure.
Very conflicted. I worked in this area and lots of my staff have been grafting like peoples lives depend on it, because they do. I also know other departments that have never been quieter. I also know lots of people who are out of work because of covid
Definitely conflicted
My Mrs is a nurse, before she even got the chance to feel conflicted about it, I reminded her that she's had very little in terms of payrises in 10 years. So she's cool with it.
It's a decent gesture, they can't means test it, well done ScotGov.
Very cheap gesture.
How about rewarding with a proper pay rise
This is bugger all about saying thank you, it’s political vote and point scoring
I'm out, the bollocks has started, even more predictable than the grouse licencing thread.
@FunkyDunc I believe 9% over three years has been offered (don't know if it's been agreed)
With two public sector workers in this House we don't begrudge it.
It's another really difficult subject.. I have huge respect for the Scottish Govt for highlighting this area and I think that Nicola has played an absolute blinder. No-one ever gets everything right all the time but she's done incredibly well in what has to be the most thankless job in the country. I will always salute her for that. The many NHS workers I know well, all deserve everything that we can manage to give them.
Personally, I've been flat out, working at home on Covid related work for the UK Gov since April; I've never had to work so hard and in such difficult circumstances, sometimes in court on-line and having many daily conversations with people in very difficult financial situations, facing mental health challenges or working to tackle a very specialist type of fraud. I've also done long medic shifts in a Covid assessment unit, packaging and transporting numbers of +ve and quite sick patients into the red zone of a general hospital. Sometimes separating the patient from the family at the back door of the truck. When this is all over, I don't think I'll get any special thanks from anyone but I know that I have done my best now for many months. But I'm getting tired.
Agree with funkydunc. Pay rise and backpay for the years they didn’t get one, for UK NHS staff, now that would be a thank you.
I'll start by saying that I think all staff working in and for the NHS deserve the recognition and the money, though I also understand how some may feel conflicted by it.
The hard bitten cynic in me does wonder if this isn't part of an SNP election/indyref campaign. And whether this money for Scottish NHS staff is being funded solely by revenue raised in Scotland.
I think it is a great gesture if all NHS staff get it. I hear what others say about being conflicted and what about shop workers etc. the way I see it the government employs the NHS staff and have, IMO rightly, decided to reward their staff, the same way other employers like tesco, boots etc can decide to reward their staff.
The money could of gone to the unemployed or even the self employed who have been really suffering, NHS staff have done a great job and always do. So will consultants, managers etc be getting bonus also?
The hard bitten cynic in me does wonder if this isn’t part of an SNP election/indyref campaign. And whether this money for Scottish NHS staff is being funded solely by revenue raised in Scotland.
Yes ( but its still right IMO) and yes. The money has to come out of existing budgets.
I think it is a great gesture if all NHS staff get it.
To be fair to Nicola Sturgeon, that's completely out of her hands!
Pure politics with a nice dig at the UK. I've a few friends who work in the NHS and some have been busy, some have carried on as normal but they've all complained/felt jealous about others who have had very little to do for months.
sweepy
Free MemberAs a nurse i’ll get that. Its a nice gesture but I feel a bit conflicted about it.
There’s no word about the domestic staff at the hospital getting it,
Looks like all directly employed NHS staff will get it.
his investment of around £180 million will see over 300,000 staff gain some benefit from this bonus, including nurses, porters, doctors, primary care staff, homecare workers, care home staff, hospice staff and residential child care staff.
https://www.gov.scot/news/gbp-500-bonus-for-health-and-social-care-staff/
Looks like I'll get it as an NHS employed driver. Or 27/40ths or whatever pro rata. Happy to take it.
Not that I think I have done anything extra to earn it. I've worked normal hours and haven't gained or lost any cash or worked any harder than usual. Covid risk? Probably no more than taxi drivers, shop assistans etc.
If it was up to me I would use the cash to support people and businesses who have lost money through no fault of their own through Covid restrictions. Harder to organise perhaps and not as clear a vote winner?
the same way other employers like tesco, boots etc can decide to reward their staff.
Yep..if a private company wants to reward it's staff then they can, and they do. The bank I work for paid all the guys at the lower end of the pay scale (ie the guys who had to be in an office or branch rather than work from home) a one off thank you
As for this being about politcal point scoring, you'd say exactly the same if it had been a pay rise instead. For once can't we not be so cynical..and I say that as someone whom is very cynical of the snp usually!
For those of you who are honest enough to say you don't think you deserve it, would be easy enough to donate it to foodbank or homeless charities. Then you'd be double herioc. 😊👍
This is bugger all about saying thank you, it’s political vote and point scoring
+1
With added, those nasty Tories taxed it
@SuperScale20 Why shouldn’t consultants and NHS managers get it if it’s going to all NHS Scotland staff?
ratherbeintobago I would hope most Managers & Consultants don't need the £500.
Why shouldn’t consultants and NHS managers get it if it’s going to all NHS Scotland staff?
ratherbeintobago I would hope most Managers & Consultants don’t need the £500.
Tbf I doubt the senior doctor in charge of the icu needs 500 quid, nor your average GP. I don't begrudge them it though, even if it just means they can take their family out for a slap up meal at a fancy restraunt when this is all over.
I do however have mixed feelings about the likes of anyone who isn't on a ward (ie a cleaner, nurse, or doctor etc), or f2f with patients, getting it.
I'm specifically thinking about my mate who is a lawyer for the NHS, but equally goes for any middle management roles safely tucked away in an office somewhere...
Most managers and consultants worked just as hard as anyone else during the pandemic surges. I can speak from experience on this.
If the Scots government is going to give anyone in healthcare a bonus payment, then it should go to all staff (including contract support staff) otherwise it will be massively divisive and create a lot of ill-feeling, at a time when everyone is still being asked to voluntarily work above and beyond. And many of the managers are on the same AfC pay spines as senior nursing staff.
@tpbiker Yes… but there were lots of people doing unsung non-patient-facing jobs like labs, transport etc who got none of the glamour and a fair amount of the risk.
Yes ( but its still right IMO) and yes. The money has to come out of existing budgets.
It's funded solely from Scotland, or decisions are devolved to Scotland?
@tpbiker lots of the non patient facing staff have also suffered too. Three deaths in the trust that I work for;two of them in backroom jobs.
its funded out of the scottish government budget. they have a fixed amount and no way of raising any more. something else will be cut to pay for this
If the Scots government is going to give anyone in healthcare a bonus payment, then it should go to all staff (including contract support staff) otherwise it will be massively divisive and create a lot of ill-feeling
this. Its impossible to split staff up over this.
Cheap politics by Sturgeon as usual.
Whilst alot of doctors/nurses have been working harder, many haven't. GP's have been under real strain, as have airway trained anesthetists/ENT specialists and a range of junior doctors who got drafted into High Dependency/Intensive Care.
Sturgeon is just a Scottish Farage. She's a populist.
It’s lovely to see that even something like this has people moaning.
Give it to a fuxking charity if you don’t deserve it and I applaud your efforts. Well done. Meanwhile in private sector layoffs and half pay continue with an impending catastrophic meltdown post brexit in many industries. So while you can whinge and moan remember there’s a shitload of people in sectors that have been hammered, squads of kids getting no schooling and no meals and a whole echelon of people who have simply fallen off the radar. Sorry but I’ve spent all day dealing with moaning arseholes who have no idea what reality is and this us properly pissed me off.
Say it like it is Col!
lots of the non patient facing staff have also suffered too. Three deaths in the trust that I work for;two of them in backroom jobs.
Ok fair enough, as the op of this thread you aren't going to hear any complaints from me if everyone gets something..
I stand by the comments about my mate however..a home working nhs lawyer! I appreciate he's probably a bit of an exception and not who Nicola had in mind when it came to this initiative!
Col - I wasn't complaining and i applaud your post!
Eh...No-one is complaining that I can see. It's a fair comment to say 'I'm not sure I deserve it' if that's how they feel.
I reckon you have some misplaced anger on this thread...
Sorry. I’ve had a hard couple of weeks and seen the hard end of x0,000 layoffs and its shite. I’ve also drink a bottle of wine 😂
Obviously, what they should have done set up a committee, fully staffed by some highly-paid consultants (all their mates) to decide who should, and shouldn't get a wee added bonus. They could deliberate for 6 months or so, developing a complex, yet never-to-be-delivered, IT system to balance up all the criteria, at which point those at the pointy end would get **** all.
its funded out of the scottish government budget. they have a fixed amount and no way of raising any more. something else will be cut to pay for this
That's just not true. The Scottish parliament have plenty of ways to raise additional tax revenue which include income tax and the Scottish version of stamp duty. In her speech today Sturgeon even said how council tax rates were lower in Scotland than the rest of the UK as a selling point for the SNP.
good idea scotroutes, perhaps a few £100thou could be spunked on media consultants to come up with a pithy 3 word slogan to accompany the handout, then its merely business as normal
Gr4ibs - tiny amounts and a very blunt instrument. there is no way of borrowing nor significant tax powers
