Scarborough Hospital will ‘not be fully recruited’ for registered nurses until October 2023

Scarborough Hospital will be forced to rely on agency and bank staff to cover a shortage of registered nurses until at least October 2023 when the NHS hopes it will have filled further vacancies.

Despite a “robust” programme for recruitment and retention, 30 nurses have resigned or retired from Scarborough Hospital this year, according to the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

It comes as the Royal College of Nursing is balloting nurses for strike action for the first time ever over pay, as the union says nurses are struggling to support themselves due to rising costs and inflation.

However, more than 20 new nurses were recently recruited after receiving their qualifications at Coventry University Scarborough.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, a spokesperson for the NHS Trust said: “We continue to have a robust recruitment and retention programme, however on our current trajectory we will not be fully recruited for registered nurses until October 2023 despite our international recruitment programme.

They added: “Gaps in nurse staffing numbers are covered by the use of bank and agency staff.”

At a board meeting of the NHS York and Scarborough Trust on September 28, Heather McNair, chief nurse, said: “We are in the top three or four organisations in the region for agency work and we are under scrutiny from the national agency team.”

According to the board papers, the trust is also reporting “a significant unmet need in relation to temporary staffing requests for registered and unregistered nurses.”

In July 2022, 38 per cent of shift requests were unfilled at Scarborough Hospital.

The spokesperson for the NHS Trust also highlighted the close relationship between Scarborough hospital and local universities and said they were working to increase student numbers.

The spokesperson said: “We will welcome 23 nurses who recently qualified at the Coventry University Campus at Scarborough.

“While we have had 30 leavers and retirees this year at Scarborough Hospital, our nursing vacancy rate is predicted to be 11 per cent for October which compares to 12.89 per cent for the rest of the staff groups at Scarborough Hospital.”