ONE can understand nurses at Blackburn Infirmary being upset at the inevitable inconvenience they would suffer if a proposed "park and ride" plan is introduced to deal with the shortage of car spaces where they work.

All the same, the suggestion that others - patients and visitors, no less - should be disadvantaged so that nurses are not does not, we think, chime well with the image of a caring profession.

Yes, the parking situation at and around the Infirmary is a nuisance. And the controversial plan for staff to park their cars at Queen's Park Hospital and catch shuttle buses to and from work offers a less-than-ideal solution.

But are the nurses saying that the option of 80 daytime spaces being set aside at the Infirmary for patients and visitors - the former of whom may have mobility difficulties - is one that should be ditched so that they might have them instead?

If so, angels aren't what they used to be.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.