ROYAL Bolton Hospital spent £1.5 million covering nursing shifts last year, compared to £1.2 million the year before.

The NHS trust is one of many forced to spend millions across the country to cover nursing vacancies.

At the end of March the hospital trust had 89 qualified nurse vacancies, there were 83 at the end of March 2017.

Across England at the same time there were 35,794 vacant nursing posts (around 10 per cent) of which 95 per cent were filled with temporary workers and in the north of England there are around 8,000 nursing vacancies.

Nationally £976 million more than planned was spent on bank staff filling in vacant roles in the NHS, 48.8 per cent more than was planned.

Bolton hospital spent £1.5 million covering vacancies and absences, mostly on paying the trust’s own staff who choose to do additional shifts.

Trish Armstrong-Child, director of nursing at Royal Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Across the country, there is a shortage of nurses and filling vacancies is a challenge for everyone.

“It has been a significant focus for us over recent years which has led us to increase our student placements to encourage home-grown pre-registration places.

“We have quadrupled our training places over the last two years and we have streamlined our recruitment processes to develop a strong offer including outstanding educational and development opportunities.

“We also pride ourselves as being a friendly, welcoming trust. This is reflected in the fact that of 52 student nurses at Salford University who have rotated between hospitals, 35 have chosen to take up permanent posts in Bolton in September.

“We’ve also recruited a further 11 from other universities. We’ll continue to work hard to attract great staff.”

Bolton’s bank staff are the trust’s own staff who choose to do additional shifts to help cover vacancies and sickness absence.

Temporary agency staff are also used when necessary.

Estephanie Dunn, regional director for the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Whilst we have seen a very slight shift in vacancies being filled over the past year, 299 across 73 NHS Trusts across the north of England, it’s not scratching the surface when it comes to meeting employer and patient demands on nursing staff.”

Royal Bolton NHS Foundation Trust runs rolling recruitment campaigns and in April had 38 newly qualified nurses start with another 18 nurses joining around the same time.

A recruitment event for experienced and newly qualified nurses is being held on Saturday, June 23 from 10am to 1.30pm in the Education Centre at the hospital in Minerva Road, Farnworth.