By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH Minister Renward Wells has said all eligible frontline workers who were promised honorariums for their services during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic have been paid.

Since last summer, the Bahamas Nurses Union has agitated for the government to make the promised payments, which were initially promised in late July.

However, in a statement released by the Ministry of Health last month, ministry officials explained the payouts were delayed to allow officials to complete their recalculations among other things for verification purposes.

Officials later added that workers will receive their monies on or before the second week of this month.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, the health minister said all eligible workers have already been paid by the government what was promised to them. He said some people were awarded $1,000, while others were given more.

“We said it would be up to $5,000 and not that everybody would get $5,000 but it would’ve been up to,” Mr Wells told reporters outside the House of Assembly yesterday.

“I understand the smallest amount that folks would’ve received would’ve been around $1,000 but the government allocated some $3m to that effort and all those who were designated by the healthcare sector to be so entitled were given what was due them.”

However, according to Bahamas Public Service Union President Kimsely Ferguson, the honorarium issue still remains unresolved.

He said while nurses have received the much deserving payments, there are other workers in public health who were overlooked and not awarded for their efforts in the fight against COVID-19.

“We have auxiliary nurses, we have housekeeping staff, we have patient care attendants and we have the radiology department, the EMS department, we have individuals in the lab and they have not received any form of payment,” Mr Ferguson said in an interview with The Tribune yesterday.

“The PHA would’ve submitted a listing of individuals from the hospital...but we have been advised that the listing that was sent from PHA when the listing came back from the Ministry of Health, the listing was significantly short of a number of persons that were recommended for considerations.”

Addressing the issue yesterday, Mr Wells insisted that the honorariums were not promised to every healthcare worker in public health.

“The honorariums were not for every healthcare worker. It was a gift from the government initially for those who worked directly on the frontlines in regards to COVID,” Mr Wells said.

“Those decisions were made by the individuals who were chosen for the honorarium was done so by those who are the supervisors in the requisite sectors of the healthcare sector who would’ve put forward their members and said these are the heroes and ‘sheroes’ who worked on the frontlines in regard to COVID-19 and the government by then would’ve issued the requisite compensation to these individuals.”

The health minister continued: “The head of sections along with the committee inside health determine which each individual was entitled to. Remember now, the government initially said that there were those who were having a challenge with folks in the healthcare sector stepping forward to put their names on the frontlines to deal with COVID. So, this was an incentive to try and incentivize the healthcare sector to step forward.

Responding to Mr Wells’ comments yesterday, the BPSU president claimed the workers were promised the payments by the former health minister, Dr Duane Sands.

He said if Mr Wells had met directly with the union, he would have been made aware of the matter.

“The union is taking issue with the fact that there are a significant number of individuals who were on the frontlines dealing with COVID-19 patients and these persons have not been given consideration and have not received the payments that was due to them that was discussed prior to the honourable Renward Wells coming into office,” Mr Ferguson said.

“If the minister had met with the union, then he would’ve understood what the honourable Duane Sands agreed to when he was in office and we would’ve been able to assist the minister in guaranteeing that everyone who is entitled to the honorarium is captured in the document that was forwarded by the Ministry of Health.

“The union is really concerned about the government’s dismissive attitudes in relation to the people that we represent and so this is very insulting to the union and that goes straight across the board,” Mr Ferguson added.

Mr Ferguson said the union had written four letters to Mr Wells, but was told by officials that only those who are entitled would be given the payments.