A SEVERE shortage of nurses is threatening to leave patient care in East Lancashire battered and bruised over the next two years, it was revealed today.

Growing concern is being expressed that only 9,000 nurses are expected to qualify across the UK in 1997/98 - a staggering 28,000 fewer than 15 years ago.

And a union boss in East Lancashire warned today that the national nurse shortage was already hitting the district - with the crisis set to peak over the next two years.

A Royal College of Nursing spokeswoman said East Lancashire hospitals were finding it increasingly difficult to recruit nurses on short-term contracts. She said the profession was being drained of students with fewer people wanting to become nurses because of poor pay and conditions.

The RCN, which is holding its annual congress in Bournemouth, believes Britain is heading for a major nursing recruitment crisis with the Government's "head in the sand" attitude to shortages having a knock-on effect on patient care.

The RCN spokeswoman said: "The city hospitals have felt the shortages already, but they are beginning to filter through to this area.

"We are seeing difficulties in recruiting nurses on a temporary basis. There also used to be a pool of nurses to call on if somebody fell sick. "More nurses are also working in GP practices, health centres and the private nursing homes.

"There just used to be the NHS and a very small private sector."

She said mature students with families in East Lancashire were put off entering the profession because they were forced to travel out-of-town for training.

Richard Gildert, nursing director for the Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust, said the recruitment problems were likely to get worse.

He said: "The general feeling is that while we are still managing to recruit, it is getting more difficult.

"Not as many nurses are looking for jobs as they used to and in time it is likely to get worse.

"Specialist areas are potentially worse because nurses with those qualifications are more likely to go to the teaching hospitals."

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