HEALTH bosses say the trust which runs Colchester Hospital is 'bucking the national trend' and has a low nursing vacancy rate, despite hundreds of vacancies being advertised last year.

NHS Digital data shows the equivalent of at least 556 full-time nursing and midwifery jobs were advertised by the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS trust between July 2018 and June 2019.

The vacancies made up 28 per cent of the roles advertised by the trust over the same period.

However workforce data shows it employed 2,530 full-time nurses, health visitors and midwives as of May, making up 31 per cent of its workforce.

Nationally, nursing and midwifery vacancies accounted for about 148,000 of 342,000 vacancies, around 43 per cent.

Catherine Morgan, chief nurse at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), said there was a very low nursing vacancy rate at Colchester Hospital.

She said: “We are very pleased to say we’re bucking national trends at ESNEFT.

"There has not been an increase in nursing vacancies at the trust and we have a very low nursing vacancy rate.

“We are proud that so many nurses, midwives, healthcare assistants and assistant practitioners want to come and work for ESNEFT.”

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said the national rise in advertised posts was being fuelled by EU workers returning home and the Government's failure to train enough nurses domestically.

Patricia Marquis, the RCN's England director, said: "These alarming figures should have been a wake-up call but instead we are still lacking a comprehensive workforce strategy that addresses the reasons nursing staff are leaving, whether that’s inflexible working or intolerable working conditions.

"The nursing shortage needs short and long-term solutions, including immediate investment of £1 billion annually in nursing supply."

NHS Digital said one job advert can be used to fill multiple vacancies, meaning the figure show the minimum number of advertised roles.

It said the vacancy figures should be treated with caution, partly because not all trusts use NHS Jobs, one of the main sources of the data, to post all vacancies.

An NHS spokesman said the number of nurses, midwives and health visitors employed in the NHS in England is growing.

He added: "We are taking a number of steps to accelerate that progress, including launching the ‘We Are The NHS’ recruitment campaign, which has seen a 4.5 per cent increase in nursing applications, funding thousands more clinical placements for those in training, and rolling out successful nurse retention programmes, including to primary care.”