Hospital left one nurse in charge to run ENTIRE ward over bank holiday weekend

The nurse, the only fully qualified member of the nursing team on duty, was forced to do jobs usually covered by up to seven nurses.

Health chiefs said 'unforeseen staff sickness' caused the problem on the 30-bed mixed general ward at Bridlington Hospital in East Yorkshire over the last Bank Holiday weekend.

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But union leaders claim nursing levels at the hospital are "critically low" and are considering reporting the Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust to the professional standards body.

Iain McInnes, chief executive of the Scarborough NHS Trust, said the staffing incident happened during one shift on Saturday.

He said: "Patient safety was not compromised at any time during the course of the shift period."

But critics claim the debt-ridden trust has been risking patient well-being by cutting back on staff levels to save money.

'Unacceptable': Greg Knight MP

Greg Knight, Tory MP for East Yorkshire, said: "This is totally unacceptable. Bridlington is atourist area and the population rises during the summer months and bank holidays, so this level of nursing cover is quite shocking."

He said the hospital's problems were all cash-related and that as a relatively modern hospital the services offered should be "expanded, not cut back".

Kevin Coyne, health spokesmanfor the Unite union, said: 'The nursing levels at Bridlington Hospital are critically low and we are extremely worried about the impact on the care of those on the wards.

"We are considering reporting the matter to the Nursing and Midwifery Council because we believe this is unsafe practice."

Last year, plans were announced to downgrade Bridlington Hospital by closing two acute medical wards and transferring the six-bed cardiac monitoring unit to a hospital 20 miles away.

The shake-up has been met by fierce local opposition and in March a 37,000-signature petition calling for the services to be saved was handed in at Downing Street.

Mr Coyne added: "We believe it is death by a thousand cuts because the trust is intent on closing the wards in question.

"Clearly the wards are understaffed at the moment and they intend moving services to Scarborough. We believe that is wrong."

A spokesman for the NHS Trustsaid of the Bank Holiday incident: "There was a site coordinator and if required she could have very easily transferred some nurses from other wards across to that ward."

Only last year the trust shelved plans to axe 600 jobs – one third of its workforce – when the strategic health authority agreed to write off the bulk of its £12million debt.

Despite imposing a recruitment freeze, last month the trust advertised 17 finance posts with a combined annual wage bill of around £450,000, said to be necessary to secure the organisation's future.