Mental health nurses face 12-hour shifts (From The Oxford Times)

Mental health nurses face 12-hour shifts

10:10am Saturday 26th May 2012 in Oxford

Mental health and community hospital nurses could face new 12 hour shifts.

Currently nurses working for the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, work 45 variants of shifts.

It sees some staff only ever working certain patterns such as night shifts, and short shifts.

The trust, which runs the county’s mental health and community hospitals, has now launched a consultation with staff to bring a ‘more uniformed shift pattern’ in a bid to drive down costs.

There are eight options, with a mixture of long and short day and night shifts.

But the two options preferred by Oxford health managers would see staff taking on a 12-hour working day for the first time.

One member of staff, who asked not to be named, said there had been ‘mixed reaction’ to the proposals. They said: ”Some staff quite like the idea of long days.

“But there are some concerns about how this will affect work life balance.”

Oxford Health said it would consult staff over the next few weeks.

A spokesman added: “By embedding a consistent approach to shift patterns across the trust we will be able to reduce the need to employ agency staff to cover some of these shifts and this will result in cost savings.

“The trust will ensure that where possible these savings are linked back to the wards to be used to improve patient care.”