Handing £500 to NHS staff is just what doctor ordered

NEWS that health and social care staff are to receive a £500 “thank you” bonus for their efforts throughout the pandemic provoked cheer and sneer in equal measure this week. Why am I unsurprised?

Most appeared pleased with the announcement but some argued it was typical SNP politicking, using money “generously” handed over to us from London to buy the affections of prospective voters.

We have now reached the point in this country where even winning the World Cup would plunge us into a social media civil war.

Not all the criticism was ludicrous, just most of it.

My personal view is that this winter windfall is a decent gesture. Health and social care staff – perhaps more than any other occupations – have placed themselves in harm’s way consistently to keep us safe.

And while GPs and surgeons certainly make a decent wage and don’t necessarily need the extra cash, it’s a different story for many nurses and social care staff.

The average nurse is making around £23,000 a year. That is the sort of wage that looks bigger on paper than it feels in reality. After tax, rent, utilities, childcare, food, travel expenses and the like, they’ll be left with some shrapnel and likely have to whip the credit cards out to get them through the last few days of the month.

Nine in 10 nurses in the UK are women. Their weekly pay is on average £15.42 per hour – less than a third of that of doctors. Women make up 90 per cent of all nurses but earn on average 17 per cent a week less than men in similar positions.

This bonus, therefore, also temporarily puts a bit of extra cash in the pockets of women who are undervalued in the workforce.

Some say this bonus should have been extended to all essential workers, including shop staff, taxi drivers and delivery workers.

To that I say, ‘Absolutely.’ So, may I suggest those calling for such sensible action immediately take that up with the relevant employers.

The Scottish Government is essentially choosing to hand a bonus to staff it directly or indirectly employs.

Nurses and social care staff are, in my view, a special case. They are not just lower paid but also working where the concentration of infection is high.

In a hospital during a pandemic the threat is ever-present. To enter such a dangerous place and work long hours for months on end is next-level commitment.

I don’t think there is a comparable occupation where personal risk, exposure to infection, essential worker status and lower pay intersect in quite the same way.

One flush GP piped up on Twitter saying he had no need for the money. That it was a waste.

In truth, if he doesn’t need the money then it’s disposable income that he is absolutely free to blow it at his nearest local business. I bet he also moaned about free prescriptions – like he is being forced not to pay for them.

Which brings me to the final point. This is not really a giveaway. It is well understood by Government that most people will spend the money at Christmas.

This is a clever bit of moraleboosting politics which also acts as a minor economic stimulus. A few hundred million ploughed into local economies is not going to do any harm, is it?

It has been chosen as it is straightforward – a one-off sum with no form filling, means testing or bureaucracy attached.

With the end in sight thanks to the approval of the vaccine, this is just what the doctor ordered.