IT was disheartening to listen to some health service managers bemoan the fact that the rise in National Insurance contributions would increase their payroll.

And it was disheartening to hear a vocal minority of the nursing profession bemoan the fact the rise in National Insurance would eat into their take-home pay.

We would have expected unanimous approval from within the NHS of a Budget which promised to fund improvement in the standards of care.

Health managers, nurses, doctors and ancillary staff are end-users of the NHS. Why should they enjoy immunity from the sacrifices expected from all other employers and employees?

We are pleased Health Secretary Alan Milburn took the early opportunity provided by his speech to the Royal College of Nursing yesterday to dampen down the pay rise hopes of NHS employees.

We remain staunch supporters of the nursing profession. We have consistently called for improvements to their pay and conditions which equate to the demands and expectations placed upon all health service personnel.

Thus far, this Government has responded favourably and fairly to those demands, and has promised to continue to do so.

But Mr Milburn must not overlook demands from other sections of the NHS - for more staff, more beds, more hospitals and more treatments. Nurses, also, must not overlook those demands.

The Health Secretary is absolutely right to remind NHS staff to be responsible. He is absolutely right to insist that pay increases pass the acid test of helping to improve productivity and performance.

Public sector workers have campaigned long and hard for parity with their private sector counterparts. With parity, there must be the same level of accountability that exists in the private sector.

Out of the extra money to be set aside for nurses' pay, we expect some of it to be used to reward flexibility and efficiency and to stem the flood of highly-skilled people leaving the profession.

But we also expect most of it to be spent on recruiting the additional 35,000 nurses we need to deliver standards of service we ought to expect in the 21st Century.