Doctors at Annotto Bay Hospital in St Mary are restive over the non-payment of COVID-19 incentives which they say have been owed to them for over a year.
In a Jamaica Observer report doctors are demanding that if they do not receive money by March 1 they not look at COVID-19 patients.
One of the affected doctors, who spoke to the Jamaica Observer on condition of anonymity, said “each time a claim is made it is sent back requesting additional information.”
He said “the reason keeps changing and it seems no one is trying to help. Each time something else is requested we do it, and still nothing. Some people have not been paid from March, 2020.”
“At first they wanted a timetable, then a roster, and it was sent. Then a register was requested; everyone signed the book.”
The article further states that “the last three months (October, November, December) will be paid, and anything above that won’t be paid, and these claims were all submitted long ago.”
The doctor also said residents were recently informed by a regional representative that, “based on information received from the human resource (HR) unit at the North East Regional Health Authority, the payment of special incentives for work in the novel coronavirus pandemic has been stopped effective January 31, 2021 until further advice is received from the Ministry of Finance.”
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