Melinda Currier: Frontline health care bonus should be given to all facility positions

To The Daily Sun,

Please consider appealing to the governor and council to ask for a reconsideration of the $500 to $2,000 retention bonus promised to all frontline workers who work full or part time in a 24/7 institution. This promise was made in the governor’s press release on June 7, 2022. Several of the clinical care departments who provide direct care have been awarded this deserved retention bonus and are thankful for receiving it including the undersigned, however, clinical care staff are not the only staff keeping operations afloat. In fact, many members of other departments have direct care with the patients and residents on a day-to-day basis who have been denied the bonus.

The frontline workers at New Hampshire Hospital and Glencliff Home include those who sustain the inner workings of our well-maintained facilities such as environmental services, food and nutrition, laundry, facilities management and others. One only needs to remember John F. Kennedy’s interaction with a janitor at NASA — when the janitor replied that he too was working to put a man on the moon — to understand the importance these staff play in the care of New Hampshire’s vulnerable citizens. They are working on the units with patients and residents having direct contact with them for better; providing their specific service, offering positive connections, and for worse; cleaning up after COVID and sometimes being targeted or assaulted by symptomatic patients and residents while performing their job duties. These employees continue to remain employed even when the same positions in the community are being paid generously over their current wages out of their loyalty to the state and those we serve. This may also apply to other facilities like the Veterans Home.

Care starts with these positions in each facility. Please reconsider investing in the staff who keep the foundation of care from cracking.

Melinda Currier

Tilton