ROYAL Bolton Hospital is battling to recruit more nurses amid a national crisis that has seen the NHS ‘haemorrhaging’ 33,000 over the past three years.

Bosses are undertaking a drive to bring more nurses in to the hospital against a background of one in 10 NHS nurses walking away from the job last year.

Measures taken by Royal Bolton NHS Foundation Trust have included an international recruitment programme in the Philippines in October.

And trust chiefs says work is continuing to bring nurses in to fill the gaps it currently has among its workforce.

A spokesman said: “We continue to focus our efforts on recruiting nurses to the Trust, and have held a number of successful open days over recent months.

“We currently have around 70 vacancies; however we have recently offered posts to 31 student nurses who will qualify in March.”

The Philippines recruitment drive has also had some success.

The spokesman added: “We’ve also had another seven nurses from the Philippines arrive at the Trust just before Christmas, with a further nine scheduled to start before the spring.

“We are continually developing our own staff, including extending the trainee nurse associate programme and upskilling staff in advanced nursing.”

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says that patients are ‘bearing the brunt’ of strain put on NHS nurses.

Janet Davies, chief executive and general secretary of the RCN, said: “In England, we are haemorrhaging nurses at precisely the time when demand for health and care services has never been higher.

“Most patient care is given by NHS nurses and, each time the strain ratchets up again, they are the ones who bear the brunt of it.

“We already know there are 40,000 unfilled nurse jobs and things continue to head in the wrong direction. There cannot be safe care for patients while the Government continues to allow nursing on the cheap.”

Meanwhile the Government is increasing the number of nurse training places by 5,000 this year – a rise of 25 per cent.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Nurses are at the heart of our NHS and that’s why there are 11,700 more on our wards since May 2010.

“We want to keep these hardworking staff in our NHS and also build a workforce fit for the future – that’s why we announced the biggest ever expansion of nurse training places with 5,000 more available from 2018, opened up extra routes into the profession and continue to support nurses to improve work-life balance and work more flexibly.”