'DANGEROUS' shift patterns could put further strain on overworked NHS staff if they are put into action, a union group has warned.

Staff at the Royal Berkshire Hospital are currently being consulted over plans to change their shifts to 12 and a half hours.

Members of GMB Southern Region fear this would cause some staff to become too tired to cope with the stress and demand on frontline A&E services.

Patients attending the A&E department in 2017/18 waited longer than 12 hours from the point of arrival to being discharged more than 500 times.

Nikki Dancey, regional organiser for the union, said: "These staff are the front line in the A&E department and are the first to deal with all the patients and their families who come in for emergency treatment.

"The staff have important work to do, as well as trying to keep people calm so that the department runs well and safely for all the patients, as well as the doctors and nurses who treat them.

"Due to the brutal Government cuts, patients in A&E are not always getting treated as quickly as staff would like. The deliberate underfunding of the NHS is shown in the critically low morale, the years of pay cuts and a culture of skeleton staffing at every level of our health service.

"If these staff are forced to do pointlessly long shifts at all hours of the day and night, they may be too tired to cope with the constant stress and demands of their front line role in A&E as well. This has an impact on everyone living in Reading who may need them in the future."

GMB Union is working with staff to push back against the changes and defend staff who may be struggling with their workload.

A consultation on the proposed changes is ongoing and a final decision is unlikely to be made until October.

David McMullen, GMB branch secretary, added: "Most staff we have spoken to don’t want to change their working hours and patterns.

"Many of these are highly experienced staff who have worked extremely hard over many years in their jobs, and feel that this may even be an effort to force experienced staff out of work so that newer, cheaper staff on worse terms can be employed in their place.

"We need the specialised skills and experience of the best staff in place across our NHS, so that we can all rest easy that we will get the best care possible if any of us find ourselves injured or ill in our local A&E."