THE unwillingness of nurses to work in West Somerset was blamed for the closure of Minehead hospital’s ten in-patient beds when health service chiefs discussed the crisis with the district council’s scrutiny committee last week.

Members heard that the vacancy rate of nearly 50 per cent had triggered the decision to move staff and patients to Williton.

Sue Bulcombe, director of nursing and patient safety, said: “The last time we tried to recruit staff for Minehead, in April, only one person applied and then withdrew.

“People prefer big cities rather than rural areas because they gain more experience and qualifications in larger hospitals.”

The problem was highlighted in a statement last Thursday from Andy Heron, chief operating officer of the Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, who said it was clear that difficulties in recruiting nurses in West Somerset would continue into the New Year.

He added: “We have been monitoring nursing vacancies in West Somerset for a number of months, working hard to recruit new nurses from the surrounding areas and from further afield.

“We have exhausted all recruitment possibilities and continue to suffer from a national shortage of registered nurses.

“We cannot recruit enough permanent nurses to provide safe numbers of staff for each shift across both Minehead and Williton hospitals.

“We have therefore decided to temporarily consolidate in-patient beds in one hospital for West Somerset. Patients and staff will start moving in the lead-up to Christmas so that we can have better resilience for staff and safer numbers of nursing staff for our patients.

“This is a temporary solution. We hope to reopen Minehead’s hospital beds as soon as we can recruit more nurses, but this is not likely to be for several months.

“We will of course keep the situation under constant review and re-open sooner if possible.”

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