HOSPITAL STAFF REWARDED WITH £25 VOUCHERS

The "Exeter Express & Echo" carried this story about how thousands of staff at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital have been given Marks and Spencer's vouchers as a bonus for reaching it's targets. It's been criticised by someone from the Tax Payers Alliance. But I wonder how the staff themselves feel about it. Do they feel "Great - at last I'm getting something from this organisation to say thank you for all the hard work I put in that helps them meet their targets"?
Or do they think "What a waste of money! - Why don't they put this money towards something that is going to make my job easier and help me care for patients better? Then I would get more satisfaction and joy from the work I do"?

One reader commented on the article "i have been employed by the nhs trust for many years i earn my living by working for the nurse bank and i and all other nurse bank nurses did NOT get any sure gesture or even a kind word and the reason being nobody knows so not every one employed by the trust got the £25.00 as stated in your news paper today".

The article starts "Thousands of staff at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital have been given Marks and Spencer's vouchers as a bonus, the Echo can reveal.The board of the RD and E NHS Foundation Trust has presented each of its 5,250 members of staff a £25 gift as a thank you for reaching its targets. But the gifts, which total £131,250 of taxpayers' money, have been criticised by Mark Wallace, campaign director for the Tax Payers' Alliance.He said: "It's remarkable that the trust feels it has so much money that it can afford to just give it away."While just over £100,000 might not seem much to someone running a budget in the hundreds of millions of pounds, it is a reasonable amount to someone who is waiting for a hip replacement or for an urgently needed course of treatment."This money could undoubtedly have been spent on urgent cases elsewhere."Mr Wallace said that while it was good to reward people for doing their job, there had been salary increases over the years."

The full article at http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=136993&command=displayContent&sourceNode=231418&home=yes&more_nodeId1=137002&contentPK=20546107#views