A CAMPAIGN to attract nurses back to the NHS is paying dividends in East Lancashire.

Nineteen former nurses are training to return to work with the Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Health Trust.

Richard Gildert, nursing director for Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust, said it had also had a "reasonable response" to its attempts to entice back former staff.

The nurses left the NHS, some of them more than 20 years ago, to have a family or to work in nursing homes.

The 19 former nurses started a nine-week return to nursing course at Burnley General Hospital yesterday.

Donna Gill, return to practice facilitator, said it was the first step in a campaign to get nurses back into the NHS.

The Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale trust is particularly keen to recruit in theatre and mental health areas.

She said: "We are having open days for the mental health unit and throwing the theatre doors open in March to try to recruit more nurses into this area.''

The nurses on the course are aged from their late 20s to early 50s and some of them have been away for ten or even 20 years.

She added: "There has never been a course like this before.

"Another 20 place course will be begin in April or May and already eleven people have applied for that. We are doing very well with the return to nursing campaign here in Burnley.''

Mr Gildert said: "We have set up a monitoring system in the trust to see what response we have had, both through the 24-hour telephone Nursing Line and other methods we are using.

"We have had inquiries from people wanting to go on return-to-nursing courses at the University of Central Lancashire.

"We have also had many inquiries from people wanting to join the nursing profession."

The Department of Health has said there are 19,000 qualified nurses in the UK no longer working in the NHS who may be interested in coming back to the health service.

The 24-hour Nursing Line, set up when the Nurses Make A Difference campaign was launched, has so far had almost 3,000 calls.

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