Dorcas said: “I was at the older accommodation in Ivy Lane before I moved to this new one. The facilities here are excellent and has all I need to make myself comfortable– it’s first class for me.
“These new flats are well designed, spacious, and well-ventilated with bigger windows for more natural light. The facilities are excellent.”
The new homes are built for NHS staff working in nearby hospitals that are managed by the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The project will eventually replace all the older accommodation at Ivy Lane.
Phase one comprises of 12 self-contained one-bed apartments, 11 studios, 23 two-bed self-contained family apartments, 16 four-bed and 25 five-bedroom shared apartments, and three homes specially configured for disabled tenants.
The second and final phase is due to end in 2026. Once phase two is complete, the seven new apartment buildings will house at least 340 key workers across 125 high quality residential properties.
Dorcas is a staff nurse in the surgical ward at the Churchill Hospital and her primary role is to care for patients before and after operations, often those receiving treatment for cancer.
The new key worker scheme is located a short distance from the nearby Churchill Hospital and Dorcas said new accommodation makes her “more effective at work”.
She says: “When I'm back at home, I'm comfortable, what I need is available for me. So when I’m going back to work it has enabled me to work effectively.”
Dorcas moved to the UK from Nigeria in November 2022 after she secured a job as a pre-registered nurse in a care home. She moved to Oxford a year later to begin her career with the NHS Trust.
The Ivy Lane resident said the new accommodation has made her want to stay in the profession for the foreseeable future, but acknowledges that some of her other colleagues have struggled to find affordable homes in the city.
She said: “The new accommodation makes me want to stay longer in the Trust. The bills I'm paying are not much, unlike those that are renting elsewhere.
“Most of them are changing their minds about working in the sector, but for me, I'll be here until they ask me to leave.”
Dorcas explained the positive impact that having a specialist place for key workers to call home can have on NHS staff, especially those coming from oversees, and says more places like Ivy Lane need to be built.
She added: “For us as international key workers, if you can have this across the NHS and everywhere that will be good because we are new here, we don't know anybody.
“Living in the accommodation, we are well settled and moving forward. We go to work and come back to a safe place to stay.”
Dorcas officially moved into the new accommodation at the end of 2024 and praised the support she received from staff for helping the move to go as smoothly as possible.
She said: “They gave us boxes to pack our belonging and provided transport to move us down. They even gave me more time to move everything. It was excellent, I really appreciate the support and the way the communicated with us was very good.”
