New action taken to encourage UK applicants to fill vacancies at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust r

Action is being taken by heath bosses in Peterborough to tackle a recruitment crisis by encouraging more people from within the UK to join the NHS.

Closer links with schools, colleges and universities are being created by the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust which is also offering apprenticeships and work experience opportunities.

The initiatives are being taken by the trust to counter what it says is a national and international shortage of nurses and medical staff.

It comes as the trust looks to recruit staff from across the rest of the world to fill its vacancies.

New figures from a BBC Shared Data Unit revealed that the proportion of UK doctors and nurses working for the NHS in Peterborough had dropped over the last seven years.

Its figures showed that between 2015 and 2021 there were 228 more doctors and nurses from the ‘rest of the world’ who joined the trust, in 2021 than had in 2015 - an increase of 19.9 per cent.

Yet, over the same time, only 139 more doctors and nurses from the UK joined the trust in 2021 than had in 2015 - a fall of 12.8 per cent.

There were 13 less EU trained staff who joined the trust in 2021 than in 2015 - a drop of 7.2 per cent.

Louise Tibbert, Chief People Officer at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Whilst our Trust does recruit from candidates from across the UK and through training schools, we also employ many clinical staff from overseas to help fill our vacancies.

“There are national and international shortages of nursing and medical staff, so all hospital Trusts in the UK are competing in a world-wide market for some roles.

"We are working with local schools and colleges, to share information about careers in the NHS and our own hospitals, to offer access to apprenticeships and provide work experience opportunities.

"In addition we have close working relationships with medical schools at Leicester and Cambridge, and offer student training placements.

“We have invested in many different types of training in partnership with colleges, and within the Trust to provide career pathways that help encourage applications to roles for the years ahead.”