Almost 20 per cent of the nurses at Oxfordshire's main hospitals are now from overseas, with more to follow to help solve staff shortages.

Daniel Giminez Soria, who has come to work at the Radcliffe Infirmary's Nuffield Ward

The Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, responsible for Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill and Radcliffe Infirmary, and The Horton, Banbury, has turned to Spain as a new source of skilled staff.

The trust has signed up 427 nurses from abroad since 1999, making up 17.3 per cent of the 2,468 posts.

The number does not include nursing staff from Australia and New Zealand, who do not need adaptation courses before they start work.

The trust already employs nurses from the Philippines, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand, but previously shied away from signing up staff from Mediterranean countries because of the language barrier.

Spanish nurses often struggle to find jobs in their home country.

ORH managers have now forged links with the Universitat Ramon Llull, in Barcelona to employ newly qualified nurses at the JR, in Headington, and the RI, in Woodstock Road.

Although only seven nurses have come from Spain for the pilot scheme, it has been so successful the trust plans to increase the numbers next year.

Vivienne Shorrock, ORH human resources manager, said: "Spain has an over-supply of training schools for the staff they can accommodate in hospitals, and this university already offers its students other placements abroad.

"Their managers are very happy with them. In Spain nurses look after a lot more patients, so they like the fact that here they have a small group of patients rather than a whole ward."

Overseas nurses must pass clinical and communication tests before being legally registered to work in the UK by the governing Nursing and Midwifery Council.

The first four nurses to arrive from Barcelona have already been registered, after two months of intensive English training.

They are living with British families, to improve their communication skills.

Mrs Shorrock said: "Subsequently, another three people have arrived through their own volition, and although we couldn't offer them the same intense training, we did help them into jobs.

"One has now registered and the others are health care assistants.

"We now have an agreement to bring over more students.

"Two postgraduates are coming in January and a steady flow of people will arrive from next summer -- starting with about a dozen."

"We will probably give them less intensive training, but put them into health care assistant type roles at the same time."

Since 1999, the trust has worked hard to attract overseas nurses to help reduce staff shortages.

International recruitment co-ordinator Angela Savage said: "The recruitment of overseas nurses has had a significant impact on reducing our nursing vacancy levels and has enabled us to continue to deliver high quality care.

"We have staff that have integrated well into the trust and who have settled in Oxford for three or more years, and we hope to see this continue well into the future," she said.