PATIENTS at Leighton Hospital are to be transferred to a nearby nursing home after surgery because of a staff shortage.

The scheme, which started on Monday, will see patients from the hospital's troubled orthopaedic department spend one or two-night stays in Ashlands Nursing Home to convalesce.

Orthopaedic patients were disappointed earlier this month after the hospital was forced to shut down the unit through a lack of nurses.

Leighton's director of operations, John Wicks, said the hospital was trying to provide the best service for patients under difficult circumstances.

"It's a good way of utilising what's available in the community given the difficulties we have with the number of nurses and beds that we've got," he said.

"We have quite a lot of experience of working with nursing homes and in the past and we are satisfied that it's going to be a high quality of service, maintaining the highest standards of care."

Mr Wicks said the move would be entirely funded by the NHS, but wouldn't comment on how much it would cost.

"There will be an arrangement between us and the nursing home," he said.

"In terms of the cost to the NHS as a whole, we obviously have high resources to employ nursing staff, so it won't be costing us any more. And given the high number of nursing vacancies we have to access other facilities.

"It's nothing to do with the finances or resources, it's just to do with the fact that we can't find the nurses we need, and we welcome anyone who has the right qualifications with open arms."

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