Honoured nurse quits over red tape

A woman named Nurse of the Year has quit her 18-year career because she is fed up with NHS reforms and red tape.

Justine Whitaker, from Clitheroe in Lancashire, said: "Nursing is fantastic, but nurses want to be left to nurse."

The-mother-of-two was awarded the prestigious Nursing Standard title earlier this year for her innovations in cancer nursing.

But the 37-year-old is now working out her notice at East Lancashire PCT and will take up a post as a lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire.

Mrs Whitaker said the problem was that she was sitting at a desk filling in reports instead of nursing.

She said she knew "lots of medics at their wits' end" and she also warned morale is "horrendous".

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