Irish nurses snub jobs at Walsall Manor Hospital
Nurses from Ireland have snubbed a call to fill vacant posts at Walsall Manor Hospital, it has emerged.
But health chiefs say they have received a more positive response from agencies based in Greece, Italy and even Spain about relocating to the borough.
The trust plans to bring in up to 85 nurses from home and abroad along with 35 care support workers this year under £3.5million proposals to ensure it has enough ward staff to cover shifts.
It had been hoped to see nurses recruited from Ireland in an attempt to get new staff in quicker, but this has not materialised.
Walsall Healthcare trust's director of nursing Kathryn Halford said: "No nurses in Ireland want to come, but there are some in Greece, Italy and possibly Spain who have shown interest."
She told a meeting of the trust's board this week that a series of telephone conference meetings were being held over the next few days with a view to conduct interviews overseas in May and June.
The aim is to get the new nurses in post in August and September.
Mrs Halford told members that four agencies were assisting in the hunt to recruit registered general nurses (RGN) at home and abroad.
The trust currently has around 2,500 nurses and needs more on its wards.
She said: "Over the last few months we have continued to use quite high levels of temporary staff.
"We are very clear that we will not go over and above the budget that has been agreed. For the first time there has been difficulty filling the RGN shifts up to our target of 100 per cent last month.
"You can see from the report that on one day it fell to 95 per cent. That has had some impact on our quality measures."
She also said that a working party had been set up at the hospital to recruit extra care support staff and that interviewing panels were in the process of meeting 135 candidates for the 35 positions available.
The trust has been struggling with rising admissions which have seen growing numbers of patients coming from Staffordshire due to the re-organisation of critical care services at the County Hospital, formerly Stafford Hospital, and at Cannock Hospital.
Chiefs have also announced that they will be battling a £17.7m budget deficit in the next financial year.
Foreign nurses recruited to work at New Cross Hospital, in Wolverhampton, were put through an intensive English language course and in the Black Country dialect.
