York Hospital staff offered days off if they help find new nurses - But nursing body says move doesn't make sense

York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is trying to confront a serious staffing shortage and has recruited 100 nurses over the past few months, but has 60 more vacancies to fill.

As an incentive to recruit more nurses, staff can have an extra day of leave if they recommend someone who then works for the trust.

However, the measures was described as "counter intuitive" by the Royal College of Nursing, which said offering employees time off when trying to plug staffing gaps did not make sense.

A York Hospital spokesperson said: “This is something we’re piloting as part of our wider nurse recruitment efforts. This particular idea came about through our staff suggestion scheme. If you put someone forward who ends up either joining our nurse bank or becoming a permanent member of staff, you are given an extra day of leave.

"The person you recommend has to work at the Trust for three months before the referrer is given the extra day, or if they are joining the nurse bank, they have to work six bank shifts in the first three months. If it proves successful, we may consider making this available for other posts that are hard to recruit to.”

York Hospital has recruited 100 nurses in recent months - but still has 60 vacancies

Other York Hospital initiatives to recruit nurses have included working with universities and offering new shift patterns to nurses with children.

While it had looked into the possibility of recruiting from Spain, the hospital had not been able to identify sufficient numbers of candidates to justify holding the interviews.

Glenn Turp, regional director for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in the Yorkshire & the Humber Region, said: “The NHS is facing a significant nursing shortage. This follows years of budget and staff cuts to meet government saving targets, alongside a reduction in the number of nursing training places. Now, many Trusts are really struggling to recruit the nursing staff they need.

“As Trusts become more desperate to recruit and retain nurses, many are considering new ways to find staff or go overseas to recruit. However, the proposals by York Hospital seem counter intuitive.

"It doesn’t make sense to reward staff with an extra day off when trying to plug staffing gaps. Potentially, it could just make the situation worse. Foundations Trusts like York do have the freedom to award special financial ‘premia’ to attract and retain staff. This would be a more effective way to retain and recruit.

“The Government must also tackle the problem by ensuring that nurses are both valued and properly rewarded in the first place for the tough job they do. They must also increase nurse training places.”

Dr Mick Phythian, of Defend Our NHS York, said: "The fact is, there has been such poor planning by NHS England in the last few years that a lot of trusts are having to resort to methods like this.

"Having made nurses redundant in the past they are now offering other staff holiday to get them back."