A PROFESSION under pressure has been highlighted by one of the leading figures in Britain's biggest nursing union.

Christine Hancock, General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, paid a whistle-stop tour to Bolton yesterday as part of a regional fact-finding mission.

A nurse herself - she worked for more than 20 years on hospital wards in the South - Ms Hancock said she can see no let-up in the pressures faced daily by the thousands of nurses across the country.

Despite changes to working practice and improved conditions there is still evidence of nurses leaving their chosen profession in droves and many more seriously considering their futures. "The work-load now facing nurses, particularly with the dramatic increase in the number of emergency medical admissions, really is frightening," she said.

"It is not only in Bolton that nurses are anxious about the future and the role they will have to play. Across the region as a whole there are thousands of nurses working under severe pressure," she added.

Changes to the management of hospitals, heralded as a major breakthrough by the Tory Government, has done very little in Ms Hancock's view to ease the nursing profession's plight. Unlike many Trust boards, however, Bolton's management is regarded as fair "and better than many".

"At least they were prepared to talk to the unions when the pay claim was being negotiated. I was appalled by the managers in other districts who held out for weeks over a quarter of a per cent. That's totally unacceptable," added Ms Hancock.

The pressures facing nurses, says Ms Hancock, is leading to an increasing tide of concern over standards of nursing practice by the nurses themselves.

After her visit to Bolton, Ms Hancock left to take part in a debate with NHS chief executives and the public service union UNISON at Salford University.

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