ALMOST one in ten local health workers say they have been bullied by work colleagues -- nearly all of them by their boss.

And more than a third revealed they were not aware of any policies or procedures in place to deal with harassment or bullying in work.

Now bosses at Chorley and South Ribble Primary Care Trust (PCT) are setting up a "whistle blowing" policy after learning of the disturbing statistics from a staff survey.

Janet Howarth, UNISON branch secretary and staff side secretary for both the PCT and Acute Trust, said she would be bringing up the issue at the next Improving Working Lives meeting in August.

She said: "I'm quite worried and concerned by it. In particular, it does indicate quite a high percentage of bullying is from managers.

"I really do feel the PCT needs to look into that and investigate it further."

She added: "What I need to do is find out who these people are really, from the PCT, and whether we have got any patches or particular areas."

The statistics were revealed in an annual Staff Attitude Survey as part of the implementation of the Improving Working Lives Standard.

They were due to go before a board meeting of Chorley and South Ribble PCT yesterday (Wednesday).

All NHS organisations are required to carry out the survey. This year's was commissioned by a consortium of 43 NHS organisations in the North West.

The research, between March and April, covered a range of issues relating to employment, and its purpose is to enable the PCT to identify and address problems.

Chorley and South Ribble's findings tended to show a higher level of satisfaction for the PCT than among the rest of the consortium.

However 9.1 per cent of staff felt they had been subjected to harassment or bullying by work colleagues -- 95 per cent in relation to the manager. More than 36 per cent were not aware of the existence of policies or procedures to deal with harassment or bullying at work.

More than 20 per cent of staff also said they had been subjected to harassment or bullying by service users.

And half of the staff said they did not feel valued by the PCT.

The PCT said it had taken steps to deal with many of the issues thrown up by the survey findings.

One was the development of a whistle blowing policy.

Judith Faux, chief executive of Chorley and South Ribble Primary Care Trust, said the trust showed up well in the survey compared to other organisations that took part and added that the findings had to be taken into context.

As regards the bullying issue, she said: "To pick that out is not a balanced view of the staff attitude survey because the essence is there's only one area where the PCT is not doing as well as other trusts. In other areas we are doing an awful lot better than other trusts."

Though she added: "We are taking it very seriously and it is something we will be looking at and it disturbs me to know staff have been subject to harassment either by their manager or anybody else."

She continued: "We are very pleased with the results of the survey. It is something we should be celebrating from a PCT point of view rather than picking on one or two things where it is not as positive."