The NHS has apologised after some hospital staff were not paid for working extra shifts over the Christmas period.

An employee at Queen's Hospital in Romford, who wished to remain anonymous, complained that Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust (BHRUT) failed to pay staff who worked extra shifts in December and January on time.

Janine La Rosa, chief BHRUT people officer, today (February 29) apologised that some staff had still not been paid, three months after the shifts were advertised.

NHS staff working under the 'winter initiative scheme' were promised a bonus of up to £400 for working extra shifts over December and January, plus up to £200 more for work on festive days.

But as of yesterday (February 28), an employee said the money still had not been paid out.

"It's now the end of February and no money has been paid," they said. "It's laughable really - for the size of the organisation you'd think they'd have their stuff in gear, but they're really behaving like they've let a bunch of toddlers into the accounts department."

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Ms La Rosa said she appreciated NHS staff who worked during that time and assured them they would receive their money.

“We’re grateful to our staff for working these extra shifts and I’m sorry some have yet to be paid," Ms La Rosa said.

"This has now been resolved and all colleagues will receive any outstanding payments next week," she added.

The NHS employee had also alleged an error in the trust's computer system resulted in people being temporarily overpaid.

"They must've got so inundated with the extra workload, that they ended up overpaying people due to a system error," the employee said.

"[But] they were very quick to put a plan in place to recover the overpayment by deducting it from our substantive salary in February, but again not a word on the bonus payment.

"It just seems to be a shambles."