ONE-in-three nurses in Wales believe the NHS will not provide free healthcare by 2010 - and 70 per cent believe patients will have to pay for some routine operations, like hip replacements.

The findings have emerged from a snapshot survey of nurses' views, on the eve of the Royal College of Nursing congress.

More than three-quarters of those questioned agreed the NHS should remain free, but only half thought it likely.

Thirty-four per cent thought that by the end of the decade, point-of-delivery NHS care will come only at a price. Half of those questioned believe it will remain free.

"Nurses have always been passionate champions of the NHS. They know keeping the NHS free is the only way to deliver the best patient care for all," said RCN Wales head Liz Hewett.

"In the run-up to the General Election, it's vital all major political parties make a renewed commitment to modernising and investing in the NHS, not just over the next term, but for years to come."

The survey - of 2,300 RCN members across the United Kingdom - shows that pay remains a key factor in recruitment and retention.

Most nurses in Wales - 72 per cent - agreed or strongly agreed that in 10 years, nurses' pay should match that of other public sector workers such as police and teachers. But two-thirds do not believe this will happen.

Nurses in Wales are also concerned that core nursing skills - the essentials of care around which good nursing practice is based - would no longer be delivered by registered nurses.

Fifty-six per cent of those questioned believe these skills should remain within the remit of registered nurses, but 68 per cent say they will not. The survey also found that:

86 per cent of nurses think it likely or very likely that it will be routine by 2010 for nurses to run primary care centres in a similar way to today's GPs;

82 per cent of nurses believe new technologies and machines will be increasingly used to carry out observations;

62 per cent believe most specialist nurses will be able to prescribe;

44 per cent believe it will be more common for patients to have a video-linked, rather than a face-to-face, consultation.