Trust offers staff career breaks

The trust needs to save £4.7m over the next financial year

An NHS trust is offering staff career breaks in a bid to save up to £4.7m.

East London and The City Mental Health Trust plans to freeze 162, mainly nursing posts, until April 2007 when it hopes to be able to pay them again.

A trust statement said that while a few people had shown interest in the opportunity, there would be no compulsory redundancies.

The trust broke even in the last financial year but was ordered to make huge savings during 2006/07.

Among the posts being frozen are 50 registered and 40 unregistered nursing posts, according to Nursing Standard, a publication by the nursing union, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

"The director of human resources has put out a call for anyone interested in taking voluntary redundancy or a career break, and they could come back in April next year," said a trust spokesman.

The trust has began by cutting the number of night nursing staff on wards from three to two, with one floating staff member working between two wards to cover for breaks.