Patients are not getting the care they deserve because Bradford's district nurses are over-stretched due to a recruitment crisis, it was claimed today.

District nurses have warned that the number of out-of-hours staff is so low that terminally-ill patients and others who need nursing care at home are not getting the attention they need.

One nurse, who did not want to be named, said: "We are having to be task-orientated instead of being able to deliver the care we want to do that's fundamental to nursing."

She added: "Essential care will be given because we are too dedicated to let that down, but it's not good for patients. Only basic, essential care is being done. We can't support people - this is what unfortunately is highly needed."

Health watchdog Bradford Community Health Council is now seeking assurances from Bradford Community Health Trust, which runs the service, that patients' needs are being met.

But Rachael Allsop, director of personnel at the community health trust, denied claims that the service was on the verge of collapse.

She said: "We are using agency staff to cover weekends but that is normal procedure, especially in August.

"We have asked existing staff if they want to do extra hours, and we will see what we get from that, and if necessary use staff from other parts of the service. We will staff it one way or another. This is a recruitment problem, not a resources problem."

District nurses offer nursing care, such as terminal care, changing dressings and giving insulin injections, in people's own homes.

The district nursing service is run with teams of district nurses working Monday to Friday during the day, and the evening and weekend service is run using separate out-of-hours staff.

It is believed only 14 qualified district nurses were covering the whole Bradford district on one weekend last month. It is claimed that each nurse could be doing up to 15 visits in a seven-and-a-half hour shift as well as paperwork, management and organisation of future care and referrals.

District nurses say that workload might be manageable for staff who know their own patients and geographical area, but to visit a patient you do not know - as is the case for many of the out-of-hours staff - is bound to take more time and be more complex for nurses giving essential care.

Week-day district nurses are understood to have rejected a proposal from the community health trust to work some weekend shifts. Mrs Allsop confirmed there were two vacancies in the out-of-hours service, out of nine whole-time equivalent posts, but she did not accept that 14 or 15 client visits during a shift was necessarily too many.

"If they are going in to do clinic work such as insulin injections you can be in and out in five minutes - other jobs can take an hour, the work is so variable," she said. "We are satisfied we are not providing a poor service or making unreasonable demands on people."

Gerrie Whitney, of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) health union, said: "There is a problem in Bradford with the recruitment of district nurses and we are in ongoing discussions with the Trust.

"Staff from the elderly care service are shoring up the weekend service, at the moment. Managers are working to ensure a level of safe service is provided."

But another member of the nursing service, who would not be named, said: "The patients are all getting seen, but morale is at rock bottom. Fourteen or 15 calls during a shift is a lot for weekend staff who may not know the patients and may have to cover a wide area geographically."

Bradford Community Health Council chairman Barrie Scholfield said: "Fifteen patients in seven and a half hours sounds like a lot. I'd be worried if these patients are being neglected in any way or not getting the proper standard of care - we need assurances from the trust that standards are being met."

The service will transfer to the new Primary Care Trusts, which will manage health care and services from October.