SEVENTEEN nurses have been recruited from India to work in Blackburn following superhighway interviews which spanned thousands of miles.

And they have arrived hot on the heels of a group of 12 Spanish "angels" who are already busy on the town's wards.

The nurses -- 14 women and three men -- were recruited by Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust after a recruitment agency helped set up a video link from Walton Summit Business Park in Preston to Delhi. It meant neither the nurses nor Trust managers had to face the prospect of travelling thousands of miles for interviews.

Trust director of personnel and development Elaine Baker said the Preston centre provided a huge video screen which made long-distance interviewing perfectly effective -- and cost-saving.

The nurses will fill vacancies which have arisen because of the expansion of high-dependency beds in Blackburn at a time when there is a shortage of NHS nurses across the North-West. They will be working on the wards of the town's two major hospitals, Queen's Park and Blackburn Royal Infirmary.

The 17 nurses previously worked at private hospitals in Delhi. All are fully qualified and are multi-lingual, with fluent English.

They must, in common with all nurses who come to the UK, complete a three-month supervised induction programme. They will then be eligible to register with the Central Council for Nursing and Midwifery.

The nurses are being supported in adjusting to British life by Jenny Grimes, the Trust's Back to Nursing Co-ordinator.

She is helping them with all the know-how they will need to survive in the UK -- particularly with money matters, housing and travel.

They have also been assigned a mentor each to support them on the wards.

Richard Gildert, Director of Nursing and Quality, said: "The Trust warmly welcomes the nurses from India and we will be holding a welcome dinner in their honour.

"I hope this initiative will be beneficial to the Trust and to the nurses themselves, who will be able to broaden their nursing experience whilst enriching the cultural diversity within our clinical team."