AS STAFF morale plummets along with nursing levels at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, a bleaker picture emerges of cancelled operations, bed shortages and whole-ward closure.

And ten cancer sufferers have had major operations put back in the last month as the hospital trust buckles under the pressure of its current budget.

Members of staff contacted the Citizen to reveal just how bad things had become at the hospital: "On some wards the level of morale is so low it's terrible.

"There just aren't enough nurses to cope and to offer patients the proper level of care, so beds are closed.

"We are stretched to the limit and whole wards are being shut, such as Ward 21 one of the medical wards, as there is just not the staff to safely man them. It is the best idea to close them of course from the safety aspect, but we hate to see it happening and we feel the hospital trust should have taken this into account when they applied for the budget.

"They did receive funding for specialist nurses for areas such as breast care etcetera, but when it comes to the grass roots of general nursing there simply isn't enough to go round.

"There is pressure on us all the time, some patients are receiving only the basic level of care, mistakes are sometimes made and surgeries are cancelled and we want something to be done about it." Blackpool Victoria Hospital currently houses just more than 800 beds with almost 40 non-operational at the moment.

Director of planning and information at the hospital, Peter Dewdney, told the Citizen: "Yes it is true ten cancer operations were cancelled recently, but they were in fact carried out a couple of days later.

"And we always ensure clinical priorities are treated immediately.

"We realise the pressure staff are under and they do work very hard, but I don't think morale is particularly low and we are currently in talks with North West Lancashire Health Authority to increase resources.

"We are competing with demands and with the next financial year not until April we do realise the approach of winter will cause more problems.

"We have a bed manager to maximise effectiveness but we have experienced a workload increase of 30 per cent in the last five years which has not been matched with staffing levels."

This comes on the day the Secretary of State for Health, Frank Dobson, announced the return of more 2000 nurses and midwives back to the National Health Service and the NHS chief executive Sir Alan Langlands spoke of practical improvements for the working lives of nurses saying: "The NHS needs to ensure that all staff have decent working lives if it is to sustain first class services."

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