Student radiographers seek trainee-nurse payment

FINAL-YEAR radiography students are calling on the HSE to give them the same recognition and pay as student nurses during the Covid-19 crisis. On Thursday, Health Minister Simon Harris announced that student nurses would be given contracts as healthcare assistants, and paid for their work on the frontline.

The Siptu trade union has now contacted the HSE, asking for student radiographers to be paid during the crisis.

UCD student radiographer Ciara McPhilomy has launched an online petition, which so far has attracted over 1,000 signatures, calling for her fellow students to be paid for their vital work.

Her Change.org petition attracted over a thousand signatures in just a few hours, as well as the promise from 22 TDs to speak to Mr Harris about the issue.

The 21-year-old from Kilkenny said: ‘In this time of crisis, a chest x-ray is the most valuable exam the hospital can offer potential Covid-19 patients. An exam which we as radiographers will be performing.’

Ms McPhilomy said she and colleagues had been delighted to see that student nurses would now be paid.

She said: ‘While this is welcome news, and deserved by these frontline workers, student radiographers cannot help but ask why we are not offered the same.’

Siptu sector organiser Kevin Figgis said: ‘The union has already written to the HSE, seeking to have them paid during the period of Covid-19. The response we have received so far is that the HSE did not seem to be aware that student radiographers were being utilised.’

The Department of Health was contacted for a comment, but none was received at time of publication.