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Recruitment drive at 'inadequate' Staffordshire hospital

More staff are being recruited at a hospital in Staffordshire after concerns were raised by a health watchdog.

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Bosses at St George's Hospital confirmed they were already hiring people to fill empty posts after the Care Quality Commission demanded that staffing levels must improve at the hospital in Corporation Street, Stafford.

In June, staff told inspectors that they were not always able to provide an adequate level of care and could not always carry out one-to-ones with patients due to shortages.

The watchdog conducted an unannounced visit after concerns had been raised about acute wards at the hospital.

Inspectors reviewed Brocton House and Chebsey House which are both mixed gender acute mental health wards with 20 beds each.

A CQC report published this week said: "The trust must ensure that the staffing levels in the wards are adequate and safe at all times to ensure that patients' needs are safely met."

Amanda Godfrey, spokeswoman for South Staffordshire and Shropshire NHS Trust which runs St George's Hospital, said: "Staffing levels were raised as a concern and the Trust Board recognises for more work in this area, particularly where there are issues posed by individual patients requiring more intensive care or high levels of observation."

Alison Bussey, director of nursing and chief operating officer, added: "We are actively recruiting to vacancies and have also recently established a new internal 'nurse bank' service which is helping to improve flexibility and responsiveness to staffing needs."

At this stage bosses have not been able to state how many staff it aims to bring in.

The latest trust figures from June show that the main two wards visited by inspectors, Brocton and Chebsey, had nurse vacancy rates of around 14 per cent.

Vacant posts across the trust are around 12 per cent. At the end of June the trust had 3,146 staff on the books having had 476 leave in the previous 12 months.

Out of those, 101 staff had retired while 284 employees took voluntary resignation.

A human resources report tabled before the governing body last month stated: "The trust is looking to establish new and different approaches to recruitment over the coming months. We are keen to explore the assessment centre approach and will be taking this forward in the recruitment of a cohort of Trainee Assistant Practitioners in August.

"Discussions internally have recognised the need to develop a strategic approach to recruitment and we will be looking to develop a comprehensive way forward imminently."

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