A HEALTH visitor has been suspended after allegations of bullying at a clinic.

Her employer, Salford Primary Care Trust, launched an inquiry and sent the woman home.

The probe centres on Eccles Health Centre, where she is based. It is understood the allegations were made after another employee at the centre quit.

The inquiry will take weeks, and several members of staff are to be interviewed. A trust spokesman said: "We are in the middle of an investigation. We are pursuing it through the normal procedures."

The health centre, at the junction of Barton Lane and Corporation Road, provides a range of services and a GPs' surgery. Facilities are to be improved as part of a é45m project announced by the trust four years ago to provide 10 "super clinics" in Salford.

Evidence

In March, proposals were submitted to Salford Council to build primary and community care facilities, including dentistry, plus a library, café, and council offices, next to the existing centre.

Planning permission was granted, resulting in the demolition of the 1970s extension to Eccles Library. Major work is expected to start in summer.

In October 2003, a survey of 537 community nurses, health visitors, and school nurses nationwide found evidence of widespread bullying in the NHS - with managers doing little to stop it.

One in three questioned said bullying was so bad they had to take time off work. Half said mainly senior colleagues bullied them. The Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association, which completed the survey, urged ministers to act. Tweet