A HOSPITAL trust needs to recruit more than 800 staff.

The Royal Sussex County Hospital declared a “critical incident” on Monday meaning every single bed was full.

But a hospital spokesman said capacity was controlled by beds and physical space, not by staffing, and that recruitment was not an indication of understaffing because agency staff are used to fill posts.

In a Parliamentary Question, Steve Bassam - Lord Bassam of Brighton - asked the Department of Health how many vacancies existed for nurses, doctors and consultants in the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, in each year since 2010.

The BSUH trust runs the Royal Sussex and the Princess Royal in Haywards Heath.

The Government replied that based on latest data from September 2017, the trust was running job adverts for 35 medical and dental roles and 113 positions in nursing and midwifery.

And the BSUH Trust’s January papers include a statement on vacancies which states:

The Trust should have the equivalent of 8210 full time staff

As of January it employed 7335, which is a vacancy rate of more than 10 per cent

Of the 874 vacancies, 343 were in nursing and midwifery, 178 administrative, 149 scientific or technical, 126 ancillary and 80 were medical.

The highest vacancy rate was in ancillary support, where nearly one in five posts are vacant.

A spokesman for the Trust told The Argus vacancy rates did only show how many permanent posts are empty, not how many staff are working.

Gaps are filled through flexible-hours staff, agency staff and staff overtime.

He added: “The more significant measure is the care hours per patient day, for which we are above the national average, which suggests that we have enough staff working to care for patients.

“We have no doctor vacancies in our A&E department, where we also have no locums, and we’re one of the only A&E departments in the country that has 24/7 consultant cover.

“What we lack is space.

“While we want more permanent staff in post, this week’s problems have really been down to an exceptional volume of new patients.”

He said from Sunday February 25 to Saturday March 3 there was a huge influx of patients to A&E at the Royal Sussex.

Between 200 and 250 patients were admitted each day, apart from Sunday when it was 196.

This week the numbers have been closer to 300 per day. Despite opening up 18 extra beds the hospital has literally run out of room.

However on recruitment the hospital is making progress. The February data for staffing shows a drop to 855 vacancies

BSUH director of nursing Caroline Davies said: “We make full use of our temporary staffing pools and overtime to ensure we have safe staffing levels across our hospitals.

“We have taken steps to make it easier for people to work for us by introducing more part time and more flexible work arrangements.

“Anyone interested in joining the Trust should look at our job page on our website.”