HOSPITAL bosses are heading more than 6,600 miles overseas to recruit new nurses.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust is aiming to take on new staff from the Philippines in a bid to fill its vacancies.

It is also planning visits closer to home in Spain and possibly Portugal and Italy.

The trust, which runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath among others, is aiming to recruit 200 staff nurses.

Its hospitals are coming under increasing pressure as they cope with an increase in demand from patients while meeting tough government targets.

The trust is also preparing for the first stage of a major £420m redevelopment at the Royal Sussex, which will lead to services and departments being moved around its hospitals.

In a message to staff, chief nurse Sherree Fagge said: “We are all aware of the current nursing pressures and some of this is due to changes in activity, dependency and acuity of our patients, increased nursing templates to meet national recommendations and site reconfiguration.

“To help cope with these pressures, in the first nine months of this year we have recruited more nurses than at the same point last year.

“However local and national recruitment is not attracting enough staff. “Therefore a decision has been made to recruit nurses from Europe and the Philippines and over the next few months this will be taking place.

“We will be discussing this further at all nursing meetings as it is essential that we all support the new nurses clinically and socially to integrate into BSUH when they arrive.”

It is not the first time the trust has recruited from the Philippines as it held a successful campaign there more than a decade ago.

Earlier this year Western Sussex Hospitals Trust recruited dozens of new staff after targeting nurses in Spain.

Unions warn more and more trusts are likely to be forced to look abroad because many nurses currently living in Sussex cannot afford to live here because the cost of living is too high.