NURSES' despair over unpopular changes at Kidderminster Hospital have rebounded on Wyre Forest District Council with news Health Concern councillor Jane Paterson is to shed her leading role on health issues because she is taking a new job outside the area.

Mrs Paterson told a full meeting of the council she was handing back her community life, health and safety portfolio after accepting secondment with the Royal College of Nursing in Birmingham.

In the week Kidderminster Hospital completed its downgrading to an ambulatory care centre, she made clear she would not have taken up the post had it not been for a situation which had greatly depressed senior nursing staff.

A night co-ordinator at the hospital and local RCN representative on the joint negotiating council she said she had not expressed a wish to take up another hospital position at Worcester or Redditch.

The secondment post until the end of March, she said, would not allow her the time to devote to her role as overseer of community life and health matters as portfolio holder.

She said of the hospital atmosphere this week: "The nurses are trying to be positive but the silence of the corridors reminds you of the Marie Celeste.

"It is a sad time and it's almost like a bereavement for the staff."