A SHORTAGE of registered mental nurses has forced health care bosses to compromise on standards of cover at nursing homes in East Lancashire.

It means that at homes with elderly, mentally ill residents, general nurses take charge "for short periods" when the specialist nurse is not on duty, nurse adviser Val Carman told East Lancashire Health Authority.

It was part of the overall "acute" problem surrounding difficulty in recruiting qualified nurses to homes in the district.

But health watchdog Frank Clifford warned against training up care workers to carry out duties which should be undertaken by qualified staff.

Coun Clifford, chairman of Burnley Community Health Council, told the authority meeting: "I think it would be a very dangerous practice if we water down standards."

"Rather than do that, I think we should be encouraging nursing homes to offer the kind of employment package which will attract the right kind of qualified person."

A report to members says the shortage of registered mental nurses resulted in the authority having to re-negotiate its standards requirements at homes unable to recruit sufficient specialist staff.

Miss Carman, the authority's senior nurse for registration and inspection, said the short periods of non-specialist cover was not the authority's first choice but a way of dealing with a real problem in a practical way.

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