A WOMAN named Nurse of the Year is to quit the NHS, blaming increasing red tape and cuts made "in the wrong places".

And Justine Whitaker, from Newton-in-Bowland, near Slaidburn, warned that things were bound to go "completely wrong" in Britain's hospitals if the situation continued.

Ms Whitaker, 36, was awarded the Nursing Standard title this year for her work with cancer patients.

She currently works as a lymphoedema clinical nurse specialist at East Lancashire Hospice, in Blackburn, but is set to take up a new post as a senior lecturer in lympho-edema, or the swelling of tissue, at the University of Central Lancashire.

Ms Whitaker, whose current role is in the East Lancashire Primary Care Trust, said her decision came down to the "build-up of the constant pressure of bureaucracy that we are faced with on the coal face".

While there had been some "really positive changes" and the latest Government strategy contained some good points, there was no sign that red tape was going to be reduced, she said.

"When you read between the lines, there's new tiers of regulatory bodies and councils of innovation'. It all leads to more bureaucracy, which all leads to more form-filling and paperwork.

"But, as a nurse, I just want to nurse. I want to look after patients.

"Every time something new is introduced that means more time at my desk and less time with my hands on a patient.

"I know that's how many of my colleagues feel too. I want to leave while I am still going to be useful and I can still learn before I get so ground down."

She said she understood the need for taxpayers' cash to be spent carefully, but said cuts were being made in the wrong places.

"Sitting in meetings we are constantly being told We're going for this cheaper option with this bandage; we're going for that cheaper option with that dressing; we need to be mindful of resources; we need to watch what we are spending'.

"I'm absolutely fine with that - I run my household like that - but what I see as a waste of resources is when I'm sitting in a big meeting and as a clinician I am the cheapest person there at £35,000-a-year and decisions are still being put off to another meeting.

"There are hours and hours of managerial meetings that don't deliver anything at the end of the day."

Asked about warnings from the former head of an NHS trust hit by a recent superbug deaths scandal that there needed to be a fundamental review of nursing, she said: "If you take nurses away from their actual job you are going to find things that go completely wrong."