Nurse vacancies at Oxfordshire's major hospitals are the lowest for at least four years.

The number of vacant posts has dropped to 193 -- 7.84 per cent of the workforce.

But Helen Munro, human resources director for the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, said she would not be satisfied until the figure dropped further.

She said: "The vacancy rate is the lowest it has been for a very long time. But I will not be happy until it is down to four per cent. That is my target before I retire.

"I'm very pleased that the figures are going in the right direction, but they can always improve."

The trust, which runs the John Radcliffe, Churchill and Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford and The Horton at Banbury, has cut the number of vacancies, despite increasing the number of posts by more than 200.

In March 2003, it employed 2,465 nurses and midwives.

In June 2001, there were 2,254 nursing jobs, and 350 -- 15.54 per cent -- were vacant.

In December 1999, the earliest figures available, vacancies made up 16 per cent of a 1,931-strong workforce.

Mrs Munro said the trust had worked hard to attract nurses to the area, with a strong recruitment campaign, including giving staff £100 rewards for introducing new workers.

She said: "We have been smarter in our advertising, with things like the Ask a Friend Campaign and the recruitment bus.

"We've also welcomed a lot of overseas staff, most of whom are now qualified to work. We have another 114 overseas nurses waiting for registration, and if they were all registered tomorrow, I would have no more vacancies to worry about."

The successful recruitment campaign will also help the trust out of its financial difficulties.

In 2002, it recorded debts of £20m, mostly as a result of paying about £1.2m a month for high-cost agency staff to fill empty posts.

Mrs Munro said: "Every little helps towards healing the financial problems, and I also believe people would rather be using their own staff than those from external agencies."

She said the trust was now focusing on retaining staff, who often found Oxfordshire too expensive.

She said: "Retention is the big issue now and we have a lot more to do. It's the same old story about the cost of living. But we have also got to make this place a great place to work, which it is, and I love working here."