No winter ward for New Cross Hospital as quest to recruit Filipino nurses proves challenging

A six-strong team from the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust went out to the Philippines earlier this month as it looks to solve its staffing crisis.

In the first 10 days a total of 179 nurses had passed the initial interview and bosses said they would be offered posts at New Cross, Cannock Chase and West Park hospitals, if they completed the required training.

New Cross Hospital will not open an extra ward this winter for the first time in more than a decade due to staff pressures.

A winter ward accommodating up to 56 patients is usually opened to meet the increase in demand during the winter.

But chief executive David Loughton told the Royal Wolverhampton Trust Board there was enough nursing staff at the hospital to safely operate existing wards but not to open others.

"We go into this winter with no ability at all to open additional bed capacity," he said. "That is because we have no staff - staff is the biggest issue here.

"I have never gone into the winter in my whole career here without the ability to open more capacity.

"Let's be clear it will be very, very difficult and challenging. Let's not try and paint a picture that everything will be OK because it is not."

But addressing the trust's Board of Directors, chief executive David Loughton said bringing the nurses to the region "wouldn't be easy and will be costly."

Difficulties include finding suitable accommodation for the recruits and fending off competition from rival trusts, he said.

"Do not underestimate how difficult it is to bring in 200 people," added Mr Loughton.

"It is not like a normal employee - you have got to do everything including finding them accommodation which means finding 200 good landlords. You have to take on all that responsibility.

"The package you provide people with to come and work here is so important.

"I am also concerned other trusts are in the Philippines and have been as successful at this stage as we have been.

"I have no evidence for this but you can expect with a number of individuals it will be a case of' 'whoever gives me a visa first has got me'."

A report to the trust's board on Monday found the organisation was around 38 full-time nurses short of meeting NICE guidelines, using data from July.

The opportunity to recruit from the Philippines came after the government relaxed immigration laws allowing the trust to recruit staff from beyond the EU.

However this is only until March 2016, meaning bosses were required to act quickly.

The Trust says the costs of the two-week trip are covered by a private recruitment agency and it will only pay a fee for each nurse it recruits.

Nurses recruited during the visit are expected to start work at the trust in April or May 2016.

Mr Loughton added he wanted the trust to become self-sufficient in recruiting its own nurses.

And he hinted the removal of bursaries for nursing students, as announced in George Osborne's Autumn Statement, could help them achieve that goal.

He added: "The reason nurses were capped in this country was the bursaries.

"The Chancellor has effectively lifted that cap so we now need to work out how we make ourselves self-sufficient again and not relying on nurses from Europe and the Far East."

Pressure on nursing staff at New Cross has meant it will not open an extra ward this winter for the first time in over a decade.

Mr Loughton said it was the first time since he was appointed in 2004 the winter ward accommodating up to 56 patients would not be opened up.

A separate report to the Board of Directors found 30 percent of wards in October had fallen below 80 percent of the trust's own staffing targets.

The majority of cases involved shortages in the number of nurses and midwives on the wards over night.

Chief Nurse, Cheryl Etches, said: "Every time it is about registered nurses on night duties. We are starting to see some bites now with vacancies and we are being hit by maternity leave quite a lot.

"We are working with human resources to see how it can be managed in a better way."