Healthcare workers in one Australian state will receive a $3,000 (£1,700) payment from the government as a thanks for their hard work during the coronavirus pandemic.
New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrotett announced that all frontline health workers will receive the $3,000 'appreciation' bonus.
Perrottet announced the bonus payment at a press conference at Liverpool hospital.
“We’ll be making a $3000 payment in appreciation for all our health workers, for the sacrifices they have made over the last two years,” he said, according to Seven News.
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The NSW Premier went on to thank frontline health workers for putting in the hard yards during the pandemic.
"It's been a difficult two years across our state but our workers have been at the frontline ... We really appreciate what you have done for all of us," he said, as per the ABC.
Perrottet made the announcement while revealing a one-off $4.5 billion funding package for the health sector in the upcoming NSW state budget.
The health package will fund an extra 10,000 doctors, nurses, and other health staff across New South Wales.
"Today we're announcing the biggest boost in our health workforce in the state's history and the largest in the country," he said.
State treasurer Matt Kean said healthcare workers had been chosen over other public sectors to recognise their role 'during the pandemic to keep us safe', the Guardian reports.
The ABC reports that NSW Ambulance Commissioner Dominic Morgan said the funding boost could mean up to 1,800 new paramedics for NSW.
"As of today, 200 offers of employment are going to university graduate paramedics who are already out there... so that's going to be a significant injection to just take the immediate pressure off us," he said.
While NSW's Shadow Health Minister Ryan Park has welcomed the extra staff for hospitals, he did say the health sector funding package would not be enough to fix the system's current problems.
"I'm certainly concerned that with what our health and hospital system has experienced over the past 10 years, it's going to take a lot of time to rebuild," Mr Park said, as per the ABC.
"We have record-long waits to access emergency departments, record long waits for elective surgery and record long waits to access ambulance care ... it's a hospital system under enormous pressure."
People employed by NSW Health on July 1 will be eligible for the thank you bonus.
Topics: Coronavirus, Australia, News, Health
Rachel Lang