Nurses are on the point of quitting Oxford hospitals over the mass influx of recruits from Down Under, writes Karen Rosine.

The ploy to end a staffing crisis by recruiting 102 nurses from Australia and New Zealand could backfire as staff here claim they are being evicted from NHS flats to make way for them.

The new nurses - together with 52 from the UK - have been recruited to combat massive shortages in the county, which has problems second only to London.

Now the Royal College of Nursing warns some may quit - which could leave hospital bosses back at square one in the fight to get the workforce up to strength.

Patricia Marquis, regional officer for the Oxfordshire branch, said: "People are considering leaving. Around ten people have contacted us to say that. We are looking at the tenancy agreements and discussing what we can do." The Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which manages both the John Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals, paid an estimated £10,000 to fly staff to Australia and New Zealand to recruit. Eviction letters were sent to nurses at the JR's Ivy Lane flats and the Churchill's Chartwell House flats when the new recruits were announced.

A hospital source, who asked to remain anonymous, said he knew of at least 12 angry nurses who were actively looking for work and others who were thinking about quitting.

"An awful lot of them are angry. It will be easy for them to get work elsewhere because of the national shortages.

"They can't afford to live in the private sector because it is so expensive in Oxford." The trust rents the subsidised flats to 600 nurses and doctors on minimum six-month contracts, but many stay for much longer.

Nurses pay £189 a month rent. In the private sector, they could pay up to £100 more.

But Mike Fleming, trust director of personnel, said the evictions were normal practice every year to accommodate new nurses and denied it would put the trust's recruitment programme back.

"We are getting a good return generally now on our recruitment and if they leave we will continue to recruit vigorously," he said.

He claimed eviction notices had only been served on 16 people, not all of them nurses, and the trust was actively helping people find other accommodation - even offering to lend them money for deposits on new homes.

He added: "Why should we deprive the new nurses of the same breaks they had?"

He stressed the trust was not paying the air fares to bring nurses to the UK, and the new recruits would pay for accommodation on arrival. He said the £10,000 could have been spent on making life more attractive for nurses in Oxford but insisted the new recruits would be a much greater advantage.

The Trust cannot use the money to top-up nurses wages as these are set nationally by the Government.

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