After five decades on the NHS frontline you might have thought BJ Waltho would be looking for a quiet life.

Not a bit of it.

On the day of her retirement as associate director of operations at University Hospital Dorset she is is all fired up.

She's going out with a bang not whimper and the medical profession and politicians certainly haven't heard the last of her.

"I have had a fantastic time with absolutely brilliant people," she said, speaking just yards from her very first ward at Bournemouth Hospital where she was a sister.

"People come into the NHS because they care. No-one comes into it to make money, but to help others. Even as a manager you can make a difference and influence care."

BJ began her nursing career in London before transferring to Boscombe Hospital in 1982 and then joining the team at the new Royal Bournemouth.

In her final role as associate director of operations, she was responsible for managing the vital non-medical services such as cleaning, catering and portering, and then making sure every day that the right beds were available for patients in the right place at the right time with the right team.

And that has been one enormous challenge across both Bournemouth and Poole sites, first during Covid and now when so many bed are taken up with medically fit-for-discharge patients (currently around 200) who cannot leave because there is nowhere for them to go.

"It's been a tough time for everyone, the toughest I have known in all my time in the NHS. Things have changed so much over the years and not all of it for the better although medical advancements have been amazing.

"Think about the number of people who now survive cancer, strokes and heart attacks. However, the art of looking after patients is now so much more complex.

BJ who lives in Christchurch, is continuing in her role as chair of the Royal College of Nursing Congress.

The RCN, with 500,000 members is the biggest trade union in the world.

"There is a massive shortage of nurses and that impacts on everything we do," she said. And part of that issue is pay.

She reserves harsh and angry words for politicians.

"You have clapped us, now pay us properly. The public cares about nurses. Now we just need a government that does. When you know that some nurses are going to food banks, how can they ever, ever be right?

"Nurses are so fed up after all they have done. We absolutely deserve better."

The nursing profession is being balloted on industrial action this month and the result of the vote will be known in December.

"Even if nurses only did the hours they were paid for, that would have a huge effect, never mind anything else."

She also hit out at the hundreds of millions of pounds wasted on the track and trace system and the PPE scandals.

After a lifetime in the NHS, BJ fears for its future. "Is NHS privatisation on the government's agenda? Without a shadow of a doubt."