Nurses' misery at job threats and low pay rises

The Royal College of Nursing questioned 9,000 members and found that only 34 per cent thought the profession offered a secure job - down from 71 per cent in 2005 - while 35 per cent said they were afraid of redundancy, up from just 7 per cent two years ago.

Despite a series of pay rises, a quarter of nurses take on a second job to make ends meet.

One in four said they would leave nursing if they could and fewer than half said they would recommend it as a career.

Now nurses are being balloted on industrial action after the Government offered them only a 1.9 per cent pay rise.

RCN general secretary Peter Carter said yesterday: "To have such a large part of the nursing workforce genuinely worried about the security of their employment is simply unacceptable.

"Despite feeling undervalued, underpaid and under threat, our nurses continue to put in the hours and dedication to deliver high-quality patient care. But this survey demonstrates to the Government that nurses' goodwill is at breaking point."

The survey also suggested that problems in the NHS were affecting patient care. Some 55 per cent of nurses felt they were too busy to provide the care they would like, although 58 per cent worked longer hours than they were contracted for.

The RCN said morale had returned to 1997 levels because in that year 45 per cent said they were not worried about being made redundant, compared with 40 per cent in 2007.

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "Things can only get better was what Labour said when it came to power.

"Ten years on, nurses' morale is at rock bottom and the Government has got to take responsibility for that. We should be very concerned because when staff morale suffers, patients suffer too."

Nurses in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are to receive a 2.5 per cent pay award in one go, but for English nurses the award will be staged, reducing its value to 1.9 per cent over the year.

Health secretary Alan Johnson said he understood nurses' frustration with the staged pay award.

But he added: "This is a difficult but essential part of the Government's overall public sector pay strategy to control inflation."

"It is only by prudent management of the economy that we have been able to make unprecedented investment in the NHS."