EIGHTY new nurses from the Philippines are set to arrive for duty in East Lancashire from next April – as part of the latest phase of international recruitment for the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General hospitals.

NHS bosses, who also look after Accrington Victorian, Clitheroe and Pendle community hospitals, have previously looked to western Europe in a bid to plug gaps on the staff roster.

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But the fresh influx from Southeast Asia is the largest single contingent of Filipinos taken on for shifts at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.

Last year nurses were recruited from Italy, Portugal and Romania – but the trust made national headlines when it emerged that around a quarter had gone home after having difficulties adjusting to life in northern England.

Julie Molyneaux, the hospital trust’s deputy chief nurse, said: “In August, a team of senior nurses from the trust travelled to the Philippines and interviewed and recruited a significant number of qualified, registered nurses.

“The standard of nurses we met there was extremely high and, subject to satisfactory educational tests, medicals, references and visas, we expect the first of 80 registered nurses to arrive in East Lancashire next April.

“This is really good news as we strive to increase the number of nurses we employ against a backdrop of a national shortage of registered nurses.”

She says that the trust will continue to recruit nurses locally, nationally and internationally.

Up to 60 Filipino nurses are said to work in the East Lancashire area currently.

The health system in the Philippines, according to the World Health Organisation, is a mixture of public and private provision.

A Royal College of Nursing spokesman said: “The UK will continue to rely on nurses from within and outside the EU to make up for a shortfall in UK nurses until it is able to address long-term issues such as cuts to and insufficient investment in education places, an ageing nursing workforce and effective retention of those already working in the UK health sector.”