New Year nightshift health staff to get £150 (From The Bolton News)

New Year nightshift health staff to get £150

HEALTH staff working throughout the night on New Year's Eve are to receive an across-the-board one-off payment of £150.

Everyone working on the rota which has already been decided - from porters to senior doctors - will receive the cash bonus as well as their normal pay.

UNISON bosses say the sum was not open for negotiation, but it has been agreed at all NHS Trusts in Greater Manchester.

They originally hoped to secure a deal of a flat rate payment of £500 for workers, but they say £150 was all trusts were prepared to offer.

Workers will also receive their normal pay, which depends what is stated on their contracts. Some could be on their usual hourly rate, while others might earn time and a half or double time.

As reported in last night's BEN, final arrangements for health care plans throughout the town have been arranged, including extra intensive are beds, on-call teams, mobile first-aid units and the suspension of all non-urgent surgery during the Christmas and New Year period.

One major concern for UNISON is how staff will actually get to work.

They say transport is deemed to be the staff member's own responsibility and it will prove very difficult for anyone without a car to travel because of a lack of public transport and expensive taxi fares.

But the Trust says it will be deploying two if its own drivers for emergency purposes to transport staff.

In the main, UNISON say they are happy with the measures so far put in place, but they say it is going to be impossible to predict what will actually happen and the amount of care needed over the festive period.

Regional officer Stephanie Thomas said: "It is simply a case that nobody knows what is going to happen. Many have taken the view that it is going to be an expensive time so they might as well work, and those who are not working will be on call in case of a major incident anyway, which, as always there would work for unpaid. The plans that have been put in place seem well thought out and considered."

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