On Tuesday I attended the West Somerset Health Forum Meeting at Minehead Hospital and was pleased to see Minehead Inpatient Services was on the agenda.

We were told the good news that the Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust had made a successful bid to Health Education England and is to test the new nursing associate role with the aim of helping to tackle the nursing shortage across Somerset.

This will, I am sure, help staffing levels in the longer term and seems a positive step.

However, on discussing when the Minehead Hospital beds would be re-opened the situation was less positive and no one could advise us when and how the vacancies would be filled, and therefore when the doors would be re-opened on the ward.

We all know and understand the pressures that are being experienced right across Somerset in relation to recruiting nursing staff and doctors.

We are told that it is not appealing for many to live and work in a rural area, and that staff often prefer to work in a larger hospital in a more vibrant large town or city environment.

I feel there is a need to be more creative about recruitment and I have had many conversations on how this could be done.

At present there is an ‘invisible’ advertisement poster for vacancies sitting at the top of the first floor stairs in the hospital. Perhaps a more prominent location could be found where people can actually see it, such as a supermarket foyer or even the library.

We were told that there had been a successful recruitment drive at the Beach Hotel on February 24. Unfortunately we had to point out that this was not the case, as was highlighted in a recent letter to the Free Press from Bryan Leaker.

In this he stated he had approached the NHS stand and was advised there were no vacancies in Minehead or Williton Hospitals. Even if no jobs were available surely details should have been taken for future reference.

We also highlighted another recent letter stating that a nurse had applied for a job but nobody had got back in touch with her.

So come on Somerset Partnership NHS Trust, we need you to step up to the mark.

West Somerset is a wonderful place to live and work and your advert needs to highlight this. You advertise that accommodation is available for staff - something that I am sure will appeal to many.

Plans to have a new university in Somerset are essential. We need to train our nurses locally again as a matter of urgency.

We also have several thousand new workers arriving in West Somerset over the coming months and years to work on Europe’s largest building site.

Maybe some will have partners that currently work elsewhere within the NHS. What better than to re-locate to West Somerset to enjoy all the area has to offer?

We need our ward and beds re-opened in Minehead as soon as possible. We also need to deliver more NHS services locally, and fully utilise the multi-million pound purpose built hospital in the way that was originally outlined when it was first planned, built and opened.

Cllr Mandy Chilcott, Deputy Leader, West Somerset Council.