Bosses at Grimsby's hospital looking abroad for nurses

HOSPITAL bosses are getting ready to welcome nurses from across the Mediterranean for interviews.

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Grimsby's Diana, Princess Of Wales Hospital, has partnered up with recruitment agency Search, which is helping management recruit quality nurses from Spain and Portugal.

An increasing number of trusts are taking this approach due to a national and local shortage of nurses in the UK.

Jane Heaton, deputy director of organisational development and workforce, said: "We are delighted with the success so far of recruiting from abroad.

"We have received a lot of applications and will be interviewing 54 people this month. We will be looking at filling 30 posts from these interviews."

Despite recruitment for nurses within the UK being slower, the Trust is still receiving applications and additional interviews will be taking place at two recruitment events in September.

This latest recruitment drive with both national and international nurses follows the £450,000 investment the Trust announced earlier in the year, following a comprehensive establishment review of all wards across the Trust.

The extra nursing staff will enable ward managers to provide enhanced support and leadership to their teams ensuring they supervise clinical care, oversee and maintain nursing care standards, and teach clinical practice and procedures.

Karen Dunderdale, chief nurse at the Trust, said: "The review clearly demonstrated that the acuity, dependency and complexity of patients being nursed on our wards has changed. People being admitted to hospital are more acutely ill and this requires more intensive nursing support.

"I want to ensure we have the right staff in place to provide the best quality care possible for our patients.

"Care quality and a good patient experience is at the heart of this investment as ward managers are vital in managing their ward teams and ward environment."

In July, just after the publication of the damning Keogh Review, which placed the Trust in special measures, we reported how current staff were frustrated at the staffing situation.

One wrote on www.grimsby telegraph.co.uk: "A message to the government: HELP US! WE NEED MORE STAFF!"

Any qualified nurses who would like to work for the Trust can send a CV to claire.smaller@nhs.net or ring Claire for further information on 01472 874111 ext 7098.

Specific job vacancies can be seen via www.jobs.nhs.uk