WYE Valley NHS Trust is to welcome around 80 qualified Filipino nurses following a successful recruitment campaign 7,000 miles away.

Earlier this year the Trust teamed up with an agency which specialises in overseas recruitment to enlist the nurses which will help the Trust reduce its reliance on costly agency staff.

“Like other NHS Trusts up and down the country, we’re struggling to recruit staff,” said Michelle Clarke, the director of nursing and quality at the Trust.

“All hospitals are all looking for new staff from a very small pool of qualified nurses in the UK. Herefordshire doesn’t have the ‘big city’ draw of the bigger hospitals in large urban areas, so we’ve had to think creatively about recruiting staff.”

The agency ensured that all the Filipino nurses that the Trust interviewed had a good grasp of English and were qualified and experienced.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming them to Herefordshire and introducing them to our staff and eventually our patients once they have completed a carefully worked out induction programme,” added Ms Clarke.

The Trust is also working with local landlords and letting agencies to arrange accommodation for the Filipino nurses who will begin arriving in September.

News of the appointment of the Filipino nurses comes in a report which will be presented to the Trust’s board when it meets on Thursday.

Earlier this month the Trust held a special recruitment day in Hereford for qualified nurses who had left the profession but would like to return to nursing and saw 40 potential new recruits attend.