Full-time employees in geriatric care should receive a corona bonus of up to 550 euros. This emerges from the key issues paper by the Ministry of Health for the implementation of the care bonus in hospitals and in long-term care. The paper is available to the ARD capital studio. "The premium is to be paid to nurses who have performed outstandingly during the pandemic," it says.
For example, nursing staff who were particularly burdened by the treatment of Covid patients should benefit, for example due to increased hygiene measures, an increased risk of infection or an increased effort to care for infected people.
"The care bonus is coming. We have developed a corresponding draft," said Health Minister Karl Lauterbach in the joint morning program of ARD and ZDF. The draft will now be presented to the committees in a timely manner and should then come quickly.
Bonus is to be paid out from June 30th
According to the key points paper, the care bonus in elderly care should be paid out by employers from June 30th, or by December 31st, 2022 at the latest.
Employees of nursing services and nursing homes who worked in geriatric care for at least three months between November 1, 2020 and June 30, 2022 and are still employed on June 30, 2022 should benefit.
The bonus is to be paid out in stages: full-time employees in direct care and support receive the highest amount of up to 550 euros. There should be up to 370 euros for staff who work at least 25 percent of the working time in direct care and support. These could be employees from administration, building services, the kitchen, building cleaning, reception and security services, gardening and grounds maintenance, laundry or logistics.
Trainees in geriatric care should receive up to 330 euros, up to 190 euros for other employees and up to 60 euros for helpers in voluntary service or in the voluntary social year (FSJ). The care employers are to be reimbursed for the bonus via the care insurance.
It is still unclear how the bonus will be paid out in clinics
The traffic light coalition wants to divide the one billion euros earmarked for the Corona care bonus equally between employees in geriatric care and nursing staff in hospitals.
The 500 million euros for the clinics are to go to hospitals that treated more than ten Covid ventilation cases in 2021. According to the key issues paper, 837 hospitals, which treated around 95 percent of all corona patients, would benefit from the bonus payment in this way.
The hospital operators of the beneficiary hospitals should decide together with the employee representatives on who is entitled to the bonus and the respective amount of the bonus. The premiums should primarily be aimed at nursing staff in bedside care.
According to the key points paper, around 280,000 nurses would receive money. According to the paper, nurses in the field of intensive care should “receive a higher bonus than nurses in other areas”. According to the will of the federal government, the state corona premiums for care should be tax and duty-free up to an amount of 3,000 euros.
Minister Lauterbach emphasized that the care bonus should not be the only thing that should be left. "In addition, we must also improve the situation for nurses as a whole through new personnel assessment systems and better working conditions."
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