Nurses in the UK now face more than a million hours of paperwork and would like the assistance of more administrative staff to free up their time according to a new poll.

The Royal College of Nursing discovered that 88% of respondents felt that there had been a rise in “non essential” paperwork in the last five years.

Only 22% felt that there had been a rise in the levels of adminstrative staff to help them deal with this increasing paperwork, while 28% were given no assistance at all.

Tellingly 85% thought that bolstered by administrative employees, they would be able to care for patients more effectively.

Even those that been been provided with 2.7 hours of assistance per week spent double the amount of time on administrative tasks according to respondents.