MORE nurses will have to be recruited from countries in the EU to ensure Basildon Hospital has enough, says a report.

Two hundred nurses have already been recruited in the past year after a recruitment drive, which brought in staff from Spain, the Philippines and the UK.

The new appointments were made so the hospital could keep vacancies below seven per cent, but a new report says more nurses will still be needed.

Author of the report, Meera Nair, who is assistant director of workforce and organisational development at the hospital, said further details would be looked at in the next fewweeks.

She said: “Though the trust record in recruitment has been successful, it is the view of the recruitment group that sustaining vacancy levels at below seven per cent can only be achieved by recruiting from outside the UK, again.”

More than 100 nurses were recruited from Spain and the Philippines, with 32 of the 43 recruited from Spain already registered with the hospital and due to start work.

In contrast, nurses from the Philippines have been unable to register as swiftly, with unexpected delays resulting in many still waiting to register, nine months after being recruited.

Mrs Nair added: “The view from the heads of nursing, in light of the recent experience with the Philippines, is to consider recruitment from the EU, and in particular Spain or Portugal.”

She added recruiting UK nurses has become increasingly difficult as demand for them had increased across the country.