More than one in 20 positions were not filled at Bolton's NHS trust at the end of last year, new figures show.

New figures from NHS England show 6.6 per cent of full-time equivalent positions at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust were unfilled as of the end of December.

But at the end of March 2022, this figure was higher, at 7.8 per cent.

The figures come as a staff body for nurses says NHS nurses are being put under "intolerable pressure" as there "simply aren't enough of them".

Vacancies do not mean these jobs are not being carried out, as a shortfall in permanent employees may be covered by temporary or agency staff.

Of 212 trusts across England, 79 (37 per cent) had a vacancy rate of 10 per cent or more – with Bradford District Care Trust having the highest, at 23.3 per cent.

Chief people officer and deputy chief executive at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, James Mawrey, said: “We always look at how we can become an even better place to work, where people have the best access to training, learning and development, as well as the support they need for their health and wellbeing.

“We’re always looking at how we attract people to work with us, including arranging open days out of normal hours to help people learn more about our roles in times convenient for them.

“This Friday, we are celebrating International Nurses Day, where we will be thanking our fantastic nurses for joining Team Bolton and the NHS; highlighting the incredible skills and experience they have brought to the trust, and the positive impact they have made to the care we provide.

“I am so proud of the dedication and efforts of our staff, each and every day going above and beyond the make sure Bolton’s communities receive the high standards of care they deserve.”

The vacancy rate for nurses has risen from 9.9 per cent in March 2020, before the pandemic, to 10.8 per cent at the end of last year.

Across NHS trusts in the North West, 4,367 (7.3 per cent) nursing positions and 1,158 (6 per cent) doctors' roles were unfilled at the end of December 2022.

For all NHS trust staff in the region, 7.2 per cent of positions were unfilled – up from 6.7 per cent a year before.

General secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, Pat Cullen, said: "Recruiting and retaining nursing staff in the NHS has become a serious challenge on the back of over a decade of pay cuts."

Ms Cullen said a lack of staff was impacting the quality of care they can provide to patients.

"Until we begin to turn the tide and fill these vacant posts, the NHS will not be able to tackle the backlog in care", she said. 

"This is why we are urging the Health Secretary to get back round the table and negotiate with us."

Caroline Waterfield, director of development and employment at NHS Employers – part of the NHS confederation – said: "We know that the NHS is not immune to the challenges facing the rest of the UK economy in terms of a very competitive labour market.

"Not only has it been very tricky to attract the right number of suitable candidates into some roles, we’ve also seen higher levels of turnover as colleagues move jobs within the health and social care sector and into other industries.

"In some clinical roles, such as nursing and doctors, recruiting from overseas has supplemented UK training and enabled vacancies to be filled.”

Ms Waterfield urged the government to implement the "overdue" long-term workforce plan for the NHS immediately.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "There are record numbers of staff working in the NHS, with over 51,500 more people compared to a year ago – including over 5,300 more doctors and over 12,300 more nurses.

"We want to build on this progress and will publish a workforce plan shortly to ensure that we have the right numbers of staff, with the right skills to transform and deliver high quality services fit for the future.”

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