A SHORTAGE of trained nurses is putting standards of patient care at risk in Scottish hospitals, according to the country's largest nursing union, Unison.

Union leaders are so concerned about the working conditions that they have launched a campaign to urge 30,000 registered nurses to put pressure on hospital managers to improve staffing levels.

The move follows the publication of a Unison survey which found the number of Scottish hospital nurses has dropped by nearly 10,000 over six years, while at the same time admissions have risen.

Nurses joining the campaign will submit detailed forms to their departmental managers alerting them to dangerous work practices and warning that nursing staff will not accept the blame for any subsequent accidents.

There were warnings yesterday of lack of supervision for psychiatric patients and of nurses having to come in during their holidays because of shortages.

The union's senior regional officer, Mr Jim Devine, said members were also set to lobby the Government in a bid to establish minimum staffing levels.

''It is clear that staffing levels are falling dramatically, largely because of poor pay, and are currently unacceptable,'' he said. ''There is no doubt that the nursing sector's potential for delivering care safely is being compromised by lower staffing levels and an increased workload.''

He added: ''Nurses need to protect themselves because, at the moment, managers tolerate these conditions unless there is a life-threatening situation. The minute a problem arises it is the nurses who are called to account and they are the ones who are blamed.''

At the campaign launch in Glasgow, Mr Eddie Egan, chairman of Unison's nursing sector committee, highlighted problems in Scotland's 10 acute psychiatric units, claiming some detained patients were not being properly supervised because staff could not cope with numbers.

Nurses' representative Carolyn Leckie, who works at Rutherglen Maternity Unit, welcomed the campaign, saying: ''Staffing levels are so tight in every department that it is vital that everyone turns up for work or else somebody has to come in off a holiday or from a day off.

''It is such a common practice, that if it wasn't for the goodwill of staff then almost every hospital in Scotland would be running dangerously understaffed all the time.''

Sue Forsyth, a midwife at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow, said: ''There is a great fear of retribution when we do complain and this will give us the platform to speak out when we see a problem.

''It shows that we won't tolerate bad staffing levels and the feeling that we are not giving proper continuity of care to patients.''

Mr Jim Currie, who chairs the Trust Chief Executive Group for Scotland, said that he had not seen the Unison document but there were already mechanisms in place which allowed members of staff with any concerns to discuss them with management.