St Vincent’s private ‘sincerely regrets’ upset over finance team bonuses

The State’s largest private hospital has said it “sincerely regrets” the upset caused to staff after they learned end-of-year bonuses had been paid to its finance team.

Frontline healthcare workers at Dublin’s St Vincent’s Private Hospital were not covered by the bonus scheme, which saw finance staff receive €750 for meeting cash collection targets. Neither do they qualify for the Government’s €1,000 pandemic bonus for healthcare workers, which is ring-fenced for staff in public hospitals.

In a letter to staff, seen by The Irish Times, the hospital's chief executive Nicky Jermyn said he wished to acknowledge the upset felt by staff over the payment to the finance team and added that the finance director "sincerely regrets the upset this has caused".

“I have brought this matter to the attention of the chairman of the board while I continue to gather detail regarding the payments made. I will be communicating with you further on this in due course.”

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A spokeswoman for St Vincent’s said the hospital had not paid a “pandemic-related” bonus payment to any staff.

“The payment to the finance department relates to overtime and an incentive programme to achieve critical financial targets over a specific three-month period,” she said.

Petition

Separately, more than 500 staff in the hospital have signed a petition criticising their exclusion from the Government’s €1,000 pandemic bonus scheme.

The staff say they feel “aggrieved, undervalued and disappointed” after the Government “chose to discriminate” against private hospital employees, despite the role they played during the pandemic.

“Our private hospital played a pivotal role during the pandemic, as we protected the welfare of seriously ill public patients to free up public beds, as per the Government’s instructions,” according to the petition.

The staff have called upon their respective unions to address the matter forthwith “in light of this injustice”.

Mr Jermyn told staff that St Vincent's University Hospital, which runs the public and private hospitals on the Dublin 4 site, had not received any payment to date in relation to the Government's pandemic bonus. He said the Health Service Executive and Department of Health had not published any details on the qualifying criteria.

In January, the Government announced its intention to pay the €1,000 bonus to frontline healthcare workers “in recognition of their work in dangerous and challenging conditions during the pandemic, and for the thousands of lives saved as a result of their efforts”.

The payment will be made to staff in private nursing homes and hospices but not private hospitals. GPs, care assistants and other groups have criticised their exclusion from the payment.

The department and the HSE are finalising arrangements to give effect to the Government announcement concerning the payment, a department spokeswoman said, and details are to be published shortly.