A walkout by angry nurses over evictions from hospital flats looks to have been averted.

But nurses, although backing down now, are warning the threat may be carried out if they cannot cope with living in the private sector and are adopting a "wait and see" approach.

Nurses threatened to boycott Oxford hospitals claiming they are being evicted from NHS flats to make way for 102 colleagues who have been recruited from Australia and New Zealand.

The Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which manages both hospitals, paid about £10,000 to fly out and recruit the nurses to combat staff shortages.

Eviction letters were sent to nurses at the Ivy Lane flats at the John Radcliffe Hospital and Chartwell House flats at the Churchill Hospital when the new recruits were announced. But the British nurses threatened to leave and it was feared the rebellion could leave hospital bosses short of staff.back at square one in the battle to get the work force back up to strength. The Oxford branch of the nursing union, the Royal College of Nursing, expressed concerns and said it was looking at tenancy agreements to see what could be done.

But the crisis may have been averted as regional officer Patricia Marquis said nurses seemed to be backing down - for the time being.

She said the reason for the turn-around was unclear but the union did not believe nurses were being leant on by the Trust.

Ms Marquis said the trust had offered nurses interest-free loans for deposits and was helping them find alternative accommodation.

She said this may have contributed to the climb down but warned some nurses were "waiting to see" what happened. Ms Marquis said: "As far as we have found so far the nurses are moving out. People are saying they will stay for the time being and then maybe think again."

"People are not wanting to take it any further and seem to be finding accommodation in the private sector."

The Trust rents the subsidised flats out to 600 nurses and doctors on minimum six month contracts but many keep on the accommodation for much longer.

Nurses staying at the flats pay £189 a month rent. If they are forced to look in the private sector their rents could rise by £60 to £100 a month or more.

Mike Fleming, trust director of personnel, has previously said told the Oxford Times the evictions happened every year to accommodate new nurses and denied it would put the Trust back at square one.

He was unavailable for comment today.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.