AIBU about the £60k payment just for NHS staff

[Westroyd1]

I know this might sound unreasonable but please take the time to read my reason.
I am an NHS member of staff, I fully support the work the NHS are doing, but the recent announcement by the government to give families of NHS staff who have died from COVID-19 a £60k payment has really unsettled me. Don't get me wrong they have died doing the job they love and under very very unfortunate circumstances but the reason it feels wrong to me personally is that my mum had a bowel operation mid-Feb that went catastrophically wrong and led to her being in ICU for 4 weeks and was just at the point of being able to talk, eat a little whilst tube fed and had managed to take a few steps on a very long road to recovery at week 7 post-op only to contract/become symptomatic with COVID-19 on 8th April within the hospital which could only have been from staff as she had no contact with anyone else and had not left the building within that time.
She passed away on 11th April from COVID-19.
I am sorry but I feel bitter that the government are not taking into account patients who have died from COVID-19 through no fault of their own within the hospitals and if feels unfair. AIBU???

I'm very sorry for your loss but I do feel like there's a difference between going into work facing this day by day knowing there's a huge chance they'll contract this and still doing it anyway rather than catching it by chance. The tube drivers or supermarket workers have a slightly higher risk than those of us staying at home but for the nhs workers the risk can be much much higher. Coming into contact with several actually infected people and having to get on with it might be different. It is such a sad situation for you though but the nhs workers defo deserve this as they're putting themselves right there every day

It's outrageous that any worker is expected to face a new unknown virus without protection that goes above and beyond what might be necessary rather than the bare minimum.

The government have form though- didn't soldiers have the wrong boots for the desert?

Anyway op I'm bowing out of your thread because losing your mum is hideous and I don't want your thread to become a political rant and forget the lovely lady you've lost this week x

OP what has happened to your mum is awful and I’m so sorry for your loss. I understand your grief and frustration OP but there are plenty of NHS staff on ventilators right now being treated by their colleagues because they have suffered from viral overload, which isn’t something that most other key workers are likely to encounter. Many of our NHS workers are at much greater risk and it’s amazing that so many of them after treating and seeing their colleagues die are still actually going in to work - 60,000 if the worst happens for your family is the least the govt can do. There are many more generous death in service benefits for employees in other sectors. It’s also an important point to keep in mind that the nhs workers’ employers have a duty of care to them that they haven’t fulfilled with PPE shortages, and as a result are even more responsible for many deaths that could have been avoided.

What about care home staff you look after the elderly without any PPE? The government has really screwed up there! Allowing the elderly who were at hospital, sick with covid symptoms, to be released back into care home without a test to rule out covid, thus spreading to other vulnerable people, plus the caregivers. I have a friend who works at a care home. She is terrified of going to work given that she has no means to protect herself. If she caught the virus and died, that sum of money should be available to her family too.

I support this payment. And if I remember rightly the question of will accepting this payment prevent staff's families taking further action was asked. The person answering said no. At the question and answer session.

So sorry to hear about your DM. I am sure NHS did their best for your DM. I would have thought NHS workers would have had death in service at 2 1/2 or 3 times annual salary like teachers do. Not sure if this payment is in addition to that entitlement or perhaps NHS workers don't get that.

@Mummyshark2019 If the care home is publicly funded then the staff are included

Maybe it is time the NHS compensated every patient who gets infected with anything whilst in hospital, it may give them the kick up the backside needed to bring about changes & improvements to cleaning & hygiene regimes, the design of hospital wards. My ex husband was in a neurology ward for an extended period, he caught MRSA in his Hickman line site, it went around the ward like wildfire, there weren't enough single rooms to isolate patients, all four men in his bay caught it, one poor old man died, that was as well as C-Diff & Norovirus, the worst staff for not following hygiene & barrier protocols were the doctors, the nurses & HCA were all changing gloves, aprons & washing hands after every patient, doctors were wandering in, touching beds & surfaces but not washing their hands.

I actually agree with you OP.

I’m very sorry for the loss of the nhs staff, however I feel the government are using this is distract us from the fact they have under funded the nhs for years, and have made a complete balls up of dealing with this pandemic. And their lack of ordering of ppe etc.

I doubt this is going to be rolled out to all who have died from covid 19, who have been doing an essential role. I’m classes as essential but I doubt if I catch it and die someone will be willing to hand my family 60k plus my death in service.

I’m also very sorry for the loss of your mum My sister died from having surgery and the monumental errors made by doctors and other nhs specialist so I understand how you feel.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if it is an attempt to prevent legal action by some of the families. Especially as the BBC, with their supposed tory bias, have discovered a massive failure by the government to stockpile ANY items of some of the most useful PPE.

I haven’t read the thread, but it’s because the NHS trusts owe their employees a duty of care to keep them reasonably safe at work - which in these circumstances involve providing appropriate PPE, and quite frankly, they haven’t. The govt is trying to get ahead of the many claims that could be brought against the NHS as a result.

Yes this is not a death in service benefit. I too wonder if they will be asked to sign to say they won't sue in return for this.

This is a very low death in service payment, probably there to stop people from suing the government for more given their accountability in not providing PPE.
^ This ^
It's a cynical attempt to deflect everyone from noticing that there was sufficient evidence to show that the health and safety risk to NHS employees because of a lack of preparedness was known about long before coronavirus.

Just had a quick look for this story. Sky news is reporting it and it states:
"Mr Hancock said: "Families of staff who die from coronavirus in the course of their essential frontline work will receive a £60,000 payment....
The health secretary said the government was also looking at other frontline professions who do not have access to a life assurance scheme "to see where this may be required".

Looks like it might be rolled out across the board. That makes more sense - you cant say one group of essential workers are worth more than others.

The government has said its life assurance

So it will be on top of death in service.

Lets wait for conditions. Because I am sure if they accept they wont be able to sue.

It will be on top off.
Death in service in the NHS is given as part of the pension scheme. So you will only get it if you are paying into the pension scheme and is based ob multiple of salary. So a low paid HCA may get less than this and a consultant will get much more.

Lets wait for conditions. Because I am sure if they accept they wont be able to sue.

It was confirmed that wasn't the case at the briefing yesterday I'm sure. Would look pretty bad if they were lying.

Would look pretty bad if they were lying.

It was Matt Hancock that said that. He said there was plentiful supplies of PPE, then said they’d all be in place quickly, then accused NHS staff of misusing it and also said there would be 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month and then attempted to say he didn’t. Lying doesn’t seem to bother him too much so far

The payment is similar to a death in service which comes from doing a dangerous job and also recognises the fact that they're working age and most likely supporting a family.

If the government has got that money, perhaps they should have used it to purchase the warehouses full of ppe that sat in them so long, it ended up being sold abroad.
I am sure families would rather their lived ones were still alive.

@HandfulofDust But NHS staff who die while working at any other time will likely have families to support and do not get this 60k.
Yes it is because they are doing a dangerous job and were not adequately protected. The government were negligent.

I'm sorry for your loss. It must have been a really tough few months and the lack of any normality must make begining the process of grieving very challenging.

My understanding was that these payments were inpart to cover NHS staff who are not British but risking their lives to help save others. In theory a migrant NHS worker, also the family breadwinner, that dies in the line of duty could leave their family destitute and their families right to remain in the UK could be questioned. This is an extra pressure on these workers we need to help keep us alive. We need them to keep going day after day.

Your mum's premature death is a very very sad event and something that will stay with you. This whole situation is a very very sad set of circumstances. I hope that time helps you to start to process the events of the last few months.

@cantory Surely the point is that at the moment NHS workers are at increased risk - a risk they didn't sign up for when they initially accepted their job. The fact that the choose to go to continue to work and accept that risk is being repayed by some security for their families if they die. (In national terms it will be a small amount of money for the government to find).