HOSPITALS in East Lancashire are among those finding it difficult to maintain high levels of nursing staff on wards.

Nine out of 10 hospitals in England are said to be failing to meet their own targets for safe levels of nurses on wards, according to an analysis by the Health Service Journal of 232 hospitals.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Julie Molyneaux, deputy director of Nursing at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, described staffing on its own wards as “a challenge” but said things were improving.

The trust has previously announced 80 new Filipino nurses are set to arrive for duty next April at the Royal Blackburn and Burnley hospitals.

She added: “Using our own internal bank and agency staff is one way of ensuring safe staffing levels, both for nursing and medical staff, but clearly we want to recruit permanent staff to any vacancies.

“In the past 18 months, we have undertaken a successful recruitment campaign, targeting local areas and the global market.

“This has helped to reduce the number of bank and agency staff on our wards and means that today, the trust employs its highest ever number of nursing staff.”

The analysis found that 207, or 90 per cent, of hospitals nationally were unable to meet safe levels during the day, while 81 per cent could not hit targets for night cover and some 79 per cent missed both quotas.

Jacqui Graves, head of health and social care at Macmillan Cancer Support, said the figures were “worrying and shocking”.

She said: “It comes at a time when nurses are already under a lot of pressure – partly because of the winter crisis that always comes when we have got a lot of elderly people in hospital, but also because there are staff shortages.”

The HSJ’s findings were based on August figures published by hospitals each month under measures introduced following the Mid Staffs inquiry.

Britain is struggling with a nationwide shortage of nurses, and chancellor George Osborne last month announced that student nurse bursaries worth up to £20,000 will be scrapped.

Janet Davies, chief executive of the RCN, blamed low nursing levels on government cuts.

She said: “It doesn’t take much to tip services over the edge, and the NHS could be very vulnerable to a bad winter.”