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April 8, 2020 - 2:44pm
They are the foot soldiers in our fight against a lethal epidemic. When Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that some 18,700 final-year student nurses would don their protective kit and aid their senior colleagues in battle, he said that they would “move to the frontline.”
They are heroes who are saving lives, politicians tell us. Military language has been central to the government’s response to coronavirus. Now it’s time for this fighting talk to be reinforced by a financial move that demonstrates our gratitude: give hospital workers hazard pay.
When American soldiers are sent to combat zones, they are given danger pay to compensate for the additional risks placed on their lives. Likewise, when the British Armed Forces deploy overseas, soldiers, sailors and airmen receive an operational allowance, which fulfils a similar role.
Governments award these financial top-ups because they know that they are asking ordinary people to do extraordinary things which will put them in harm’s way. Nurses, doctors and other vital NHS workers are demonstrably deserving of the same — we are asking them to go above and beyond what is typically expected from their day-to-day shifts in exceptionally dangerous circumstances.
In many ways they are more deserving of hazard pay as they’re not only risking their own lives, their families’ health is affected too. Every time they go to work to help save lives, they increase the likelihood of a partner or parent contracting Covid-19.
Taking into account the relative unhealthiness of the average Briton and the effect these comorbidities have on the likelihood of grave and fatal suffering, many frontline health workers have been forced into isolating themselves from their families. Many have made tough financial decisions to send them away from their homes, with several reports of nurses spending their pay on rent to keep their loved ones safe.
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SubscribeThere is no doubt about the commitment of our NHS staff, both front line and ancillary, in dealing with confirmed Covid19 sufferers and their subsequent mental stress in dealing with the dead and dying, but spare a thought for the front line staff of our food supply industry. They face an unending stream of people of unknown hazard on a daily basis. Often with little more than rudimentary personal protection they continue to serve in very trying circumstances too often berated and abused by those who seem to have little grasp of social distancing in their demand for the last multi pack of some inconsequential snack. By all means pay danger monies to our NHS staff but let us not forget our shop staff or Care Home workers. Perhaps they too should receive some additional remuneration for their contribution
Before tapping the taxpayer for yet more Covid-19-related expenditure, perhaps we should assess the degree of hazard involved. On current figures, the risk of death to NHS staff is one tenth of that in the general population. Perhaps that PPE is working after all.