Late finishes: a July update

Transparent EEAST crest

We recognise that late finishes have a really big impact on staff and we are committed to developing further ideas to tackle the problem and reduce these. Over the last few weeks we have been gathering raw data from June on late finishes to enable us to better understand the issue and start developing new ways forward.  We will continue to make incremental steps to tackle the problem so that we can balance staff welfare against the need to provide a safe service to patients. 

From this data we are looking at doing further work including: 

  • Reviewing the impact of cross border working 
  • Possible solutions for crews that are a significant distance away from their base in the last part of their shift 
  • A proposal put forward by staff in Beds and Herts whereby staff can opt to take a green or urgent call in the last hour of their shift (rather than risk waiting to get a red call as they get closer to shift end).

Now we have started gathering the data we will also be able to test better what works and what doesn’t work; we are aware of a recent case that resulted in an 18-hour shift for the staff involved. Although this is an exceptional case it is clearly unacceptable and we're conducting an investigation to find out how and why this happened. 

We will keep you updated through Need to Know, but if you have any other positive ideas please leave them in the comments box below.

0 Comments
Leave a Comment
Name (required)
Email Address (required, never displayed)
Enter a message

(all comments are moderated - your submission will be posted on approval.)