All NHS and primary care staff in Wales are to receive a bonus payment to recognise their “extraordinary” pandemic contribution, it has been announced.

Staff will get an extra £735 in their pay packet – but most will take home £500 after tax and national insurance. The award, worth £326 million, is to go 2,345 students who have worked in the pandemic, 26,000 primary care staff and 90,000 employees of NHS Wales together with social care staff.

The British Medical Association welcomed the award – but called for “significant” annual pay increases for staff.

Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething said: “Over the last year, Wales’ NHS staff and social care staff have shown a remarkable amount of commitment and courage from the initial outbreak of the pandemic right through to the current second wave. They will have suffered the impacts of the pandemic on their physical and mental health wellbeing in both their personal and professional lives. This payment expresses our gratitude to our NHS and social care workforce for their extraordinary contribution in keeping Wales safe.”

BMA Welsh chair Dr David Bailey said: “We welcome this gesture as an acknowledgement of the hard work and dedication demonstrated by doctors and other NHS workers in Wales who have been stretched to the very limits during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are pleased to see their tireless commitment has been recognised. Whilst this payment is gratefully received, this is separate and in addition to the DDRB process, which reviews doctors annual pay award, and we reiterate our calls for a significant pay uplift for doctors which would address the real term pay erosion over the past decade.”