One hundred new nurses are being taken on at Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital in a bid to cope with an expected winter rush of patients.

A recruitment drive will be launched next month, with both untrained and trained nurses will be taken on to cope with the increased work in the colder months.

David Loughton, chief executive of the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We will be taking on trained and untrained nurses.

“We always try to have surplus staff to cope with the increase in workload.

“While other hospitals may be letting staff go we are doing the reverse.”

Mr Loughton added recruitment will start some time in August and will run through until November.

The move by New Cross comes as Dudley’s Russells Hall announced it was taking on 40 extra nurses to help reduce waiting times in accident and emergency.

New Cross chief operating officer Vivien Hall added full-time nurses would be posted across the entire hospital.

She said: “They will be employed on a permanent basis. We are taking on trained and untrained nurses which are health care assistants who help out on all the wards.

“We will start to up the ante next month and launch our recruitment drive.”

She also said a new 23-bed emergency ward was set to open at the hospital on July 19. Up to 30 nurses have been recruited to staff the new surgical ward.