THE future of DASH – the drug and alcohol services for Huntingdonshire – is uncertain and has been for three years. Now on a site that is boarded up and due to be demolished, a spokeswoman for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said morale for the 15 staf

THE future of DASH - the drug and alcohol services for Huntingdonshire - is uncertain and has been for three years.

Now on a site that is boarded up and due to be demolished, a spokeswoman for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said morale for the 15 staff was low.

She said: "We used to be such a happy team. We are dealing with the most difficult people and it is as if what we do is not valued. People ask us where we are movingto and when we are going and we can't tell them. We don't know when and we don't know where.

"In 25 years of working for the health service I have never known things as bad as this - and our story is not unusual. Members of the RCN across the country are demoralised. The feeling is that we have no control over what we do any more. It's just a matter of number-crunching now and that is now what we are about."

The spokesman said she believed the DASH service was being put out to tender. However, it was not expected that any of the team of 15 would find their jobs at risk.

The team sees clients at health centres in Ramsey, St Ives, St Neots and Huntingdon, including the new Oak Tree Centre, on Oxmoor.

Primrose Lane is used purely as the team's headquarters.

A spokesman for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mental Health Partnership said several options were being looked at for the DASH team and it was hoped the situation would be resolved by Christmas.