UK Hospital to Hire 100 Filipino Nurses
CHICHESTER, United Kingdom: A team from Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust will be visiting the Philippines next month to recruit around 100 nurses in order to address the acute staff shortage in the country.
The trust, which runs Worthing Hospital and St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester, is struggling to fill the vacant posts because of a national shortage of nurses, Argus reported.
It has already recruited 62 staff from Spain, Italy and Portugal in recent years but is now looking at other nations, the report said.
In a report to the trust board, trust chief executive Marianne Griffiths reportedly said, “We are starting a new overseas recruitment drive in June, returning to the Philippines. It is hoped we can employ up to 100 qualified Filipino nurses. The trust is taking a variety of different measures to address the significant shortfall of trained nurses available to work in the UK.”
Another recruitment and open day is taking place at Worthing Hospital on May 6 and further events are planned for June and July.
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath has recently taken on 135 nurses from overseas and staff have returned from a trip to Italy, the news report said.
The trust is also considering signing up Greece and Portugal.
Increased work pressure, and salary has prompted many nurses to quit the profession and not enough new recruits are coming through to fill gaps.
Hospitals are also facing the problem to increase nurse numbers because of changes brought about following the Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal and subsequent Francis Report.
Staff shortages are having a knock-on effect on hospitals as they struggle to cover shifts. Last month the county’s three main hospital trusts spent more than £11m on agency nurses since April 2014 compared to £8.8m over the same period two years ago, Argus reported.