THE NURSING HOME group owned by three Irish billionaires has made Covid-19 bonus payments of £4.3m (€5.03m) to its front line care home workers “in recognition of their exceptional hard work” during the pandemic.

The Covid-19 bonus payments to the front line employees are disclosed in new accounts for Barchester Healthcare which is a top-four care home provider in the UK.

The group is co-owned by three of Ireland’s best known and most successful businessmen, JP McManus, John Magnier and Dermot Desmond.

The group employs 15,427 across all grades and in a statement accompanying the accounts, Barchester Group chairman, John Coleman thanks the staff “who worked so tirelessly and with such dedication throughout 2020 to care for residents and patients who stayed with us”.

Coleman remarked: “Our staff are amazing at the best of times, but to see their commitment during the most testing period imaginable across the care sector is a real testament to the character of this special group of people.”

A spokeswoman for Barchester Healthcare said today that care home staff were paid “three Covid-related bonuses in recognition of the commitment and hard work they displayed throughout such a difficult time”.

With much debate here currently about how Government will reward Covid-19 front line health care workers in bonus payments, the spokeswoman said: “This bonus was for frontline care staff only and not for head office staff, with an average payment of £224 and highest payment of £2,190.”

The spokeswoman stated: “Business decisions like this are made by our Executive Board and the owners of Barchester are very supportive of such initiatives. We do not have any current plans to extend the Covid bonus scheme beyond the three bonuses offered, with the last payment made in April 2021.”

She stated that just under 7,000 care staff in homes also received a bonus in 2020 “linked to the quality of care they deliver as rated by the external care inspectorate which is a recurring annual scheme”.

She stated that Barchester also paid enhanced sick pay to those who tested positive for Covid-19 and topping up wages to 100% for staff furloughed due to the need to shield.

Barchester operates 15,000 registered beds across 200 registered services and on the Covid-19 impact, Coleman stated that “sadly despite our best efforts, a sharp increase in the number of deaths was seen in April 2020 as the first wave spread across the country”.

He later added that “sadly a second spike in Covid-19 deaths was seen in January 2021, albeit this was significantly smaller than the one seen in April 2020”,

Coleman stated that virtually all residents have been vaccinated and Barchester has a mandatory vaccination policy for all staff.

He said: “We have seen a significant reduction in Covid-19 infections amongst residents, patients and staff and life in our service seems to be returning to a more ‘business as usual’ feel.”

The accounts show that pre-tax profits last year declined by 12% to £19.17m.

The drop in profit came as revenues increased by 8% from £657.6 million to £663.39 million.

Along with the Covid-19 £4.3m bonus payments, the directors state that other Covid-19 costs include £2.4m on PPE and £2.5m of sick pay.

The accounts state that the additional costs as a result of Covid-19 include the purchase of additional cleaning materials, communication costs, training costs, paying top-up pay to those staff that were furloughed as a result of shielding, and the cost of additional staff hours for testing.”

The group’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation, and rent (EBITDAR) increased by £16.3m to £212.2m.

The group received Government grants of £12.55m to assist during the Covid-19 pandemic spilt between the Infection Control Fund from central Government and local Covid supports.

Shareholder funds at the end of last year total £166m while cash funds reduced £59.89m to £17.m.