At least two million people in Britain suffer with incontinence. Yet in some areas it is managed very poorly. Daloni Carlisle describes an initiative in Wirral that tackled the problem head-on

Incontinence is a huge and sometimes a hidden problem affecting at least two million people in Britain. While some health authorities see it as sufficiently costly and distressing for them to fund specialist nurses with a remit for continence promotion, in others nurses have fought single-handed the battle against poor provision for patients and poor education for staff.