A group of Cork nurses with long covid gave a presentation to Oireachtas members and staff in the D\u00e1il recently, as their pay is set to be cut from the end of this year.<\/p>\n
The Department of Health and HSE has confirmed that the final extension of the temporary Long Covid scheme will expire on December 31.<\/p>\n
After that date, more than 120 healthcare workers currently availing of this scheme will be transferred to the Public Service Sick Leave Scheme, meaning a nurse who currently earns \u20ac50,949 per annum will reduce to half pay from April 1, 2026, and onto Illness Benefit of \u20ac12,974 per annum.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast majority of these 159 healthcare workers are female and have mortgages and medical bills and out of pocket expenses for appointments,\u201d the INMO said.<\/p>\n
Workers have been represented in the WRC and Labour Court by their unions, but \u201cthe Government has not accepted covid as an occupational disease causing injury to healthcare workers because of workplace exposure\u201d, despite the European Commission recommending that they do so.<\/p>\n
Applause<\/p>\n
Social Democrat TD Liam Quaide told The Echo: \u201cWe all remember that earnest round of applause healthcare workers received in the D\u00e1il in March 2020 as the country was gripped by the pandemic \u2014 and much of the workforce was directed to retreat to safety at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat bualadh bos rings hollow for many healthcare workers who contracted the virus in high-risk healthcare settings, often without adequate PPE, prior to vaccinations \u2014 and who went on to develop a debilitating, life-changing condition known as long covid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have gone from leading active, dynamic lives to being afflicted with debilitating fatigue after modest levels of activity and a range of other symptoms including vertigo, nerve pain, and brain fog.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained that treatments for long covid are extremely limited and generally help manage or cope with symptoms, rather than alleviate them, and that despite the sacrifices these healthcare workers made in hospital wards or residential settings, they have faced an ongoing struggle for financial security.<\/p>\n
Arguing<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the past four to five years, a cohort of healthcare workers have been in receipt of their basic salary \u2014 a temporary arrangement extended through the Labour Court. At intervals of six months to a year, the government threatens to withdraw this payment \u2014 arguing that they have extended the hand of generosity enough, and that standard sick leave will suffice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis maintains workers in a state of chronic stress, repeatedly waiting for their financial security to end and fearing they may not be able to pay their mortgages. At the end of June, Minister Carroll MacNeill again extended the payment until December \u2014 and this is meant to be the final extension.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Quaide added that workers have been represented in the WRC and Labour Court by their unions, but \u201cthe fight at each interval is taking a huge toll\u201d, calling on the government to recognise long covid as an occupational injury so that the staff can have financial security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of Cork nurses with long covid gave a presentation to Oireachtas members and staff in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[15607,79,103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-92230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-cork-health","9":"tag-cork-news","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-health-care","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}