The government last year announced it was placing a cap on nursing shifts so the maximum time worked could be 12 hours.

Health Minister Michael Ferguson announced in Parliament on Thursday that in three months of the policy being in place double shifts had been reduced by up to 50 per cent in the state’s three regions.

Double shifts at the LGH dropped by 290, or just over half.

“This is a significant achievement given the well reported increased demand being faced by our health system,” Mr Ferguson said.

“While this early trend is encouraging, there is much more work to do to maintain these improvements in coming months, where historically there are greater levels of sick leave contributing to increases in double shifts over winter.

“We must and will continue to look at all appropriate means to tackle the problem of double shifts.”

The Royal Hobart Hospital saw a reduction in 152 fewer shifts, or about 30 per cent.

There were 12 fewer at the North West Regional and Mersey Community Hospitals, where double shifts are historically less frequent – a fall of more than 17 per cent.