UNCERTAINTY over the future of Harefield Hospital may have been responsible for the high turnover of nurses in the last financial year, according to its director of human resources.

In a report to the Harefield Hospital and Royal Brompton NHS Trust, Ms Sarah Carrington said the level of nurses leaving paediatric departments at both hospitals was high for 1999-2000.

This, she said, could have been caused by the consultation launched in September last year by the Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster Health Authority into the transfer of in-patient children's services from Harefield to the Brompton.

The move was proposed because of a lack of critical care facilities and potential staff shortages at Harefield.

Based on responses, in March, the Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster Health Authority decided this was the best option.

Ms Carrington noted: 'The paediatric reviews at Brompton and Harefield may have had an effect on nursing staff as the levels of paediatric leavers at both hospitals for 1999-2000 were high, the leavers increased at the Royal Brompton from August 1999 and at Harefield there were no paediatric leavers until October 1999.'

But she said this was not indicated in exit questionnaires as a reason for leaving.

A third of the trust's nursing staff left in the year up to April 2000.

She said the proposal to shut both Harefield and the Brompton, and the transfer of their services to a new development in Paddington, London, announced earlier this year, had not yet had an effect on nursing vacancies.