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Stafford nurse vacancy rate drops by almost 50%

Nurse vacancy levels at County Hospital in Stafford have dropped by almost 50 per cent, it was revealed today.

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The number of vacant posts has fallen from 62 to 33 on inpatient wards - meaning 29 extra nurses now work on the departments.

The drop has come since University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM) took over the running of the hospital in November.

Bosses say the drop in numbers is down to successful recruitment and re-organisation of services across the hospital making more effective use of resources.

Gill Adamson, director of nursing for workforce and education at the trust, said: "Our patients are telling us at the care they receive at County Hospital is of a high quality and that's down to the hard work of the nurses and clinical staff.

"By reducing the nurse vacancy rate at the hospital, patient care and experience will be even stronger.

"It is important that we maintain our nurse to patient ratios and maintain high quality care for all our patients.

"In the long-term we are working with our local universities to increase the number of nurse training places so that Staffordshire gains the benefits from having a large teaching hospital in the area."

The trust has recruited more than 750 nurses across County Hospital and Royal Stoke University Hospital in the past 12 months to support the expansion of clinical services as well as open new beds to cope with patient demand.

The trust has been recruiting local nurses as well as from overseas of the last 12 months as service changes are implemented at County, formally Stafford Hospital.

It comes after it was revealed on Saturday that three more health services will be moved from County to Stoke.

Cardiology, haematology and pathology will join paediatric services in the list of departments moving out of the hospital in the summer.

The date that children's inpatient services will cease was revealed as May 18.

It will then be split between Royal Stoke University Hospital and New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton.

Some maternity services have already made the move.

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