§ Ms. WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will list the number of job forums in which jobs for intensive care nursing staff at Birmingham children's hospital have been advertised since 17 February 1988; what response there has been; and if he will make a statement;
(2) if he will list the number of advertisements for intensive care nursing staff at Birmingham children's 149W hospital carried (a) in the nursing press and (b) in the Nursing Times since 17 February; what response there has been; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. Currie[holding answer 23 May 1988]: Since 17 February one two-day job forum has been held aimed at attracting nursing staff to the Birmingham children's hospital as a whole. Following this forum a number of nurse trainees expressed a firm interest in working at the hospital on completion of their training this summer.
A recruitment advertisement for trained nurses appeared in the Nursing Times on 9 March but received no response. Since earlier advertisements in the nursing press also had minimal success in recruiting nurses trained in intensive care, recruitment efforts will in future concentrate on the hospital's innovative 52-week teaching and experience package, under which nurses work as supernumaries in the intensive therapy unit and which has already attracted nine recruits; on a course for training post-graduate nurses in paediatric intensive care, which will be the first such course outside London; on a possible course to convert enrolled nurses to registered sick children's nurses; on increasing the output of training schools in the region from 56 to 77 registered sick children's nurses a year; on local press and radio appeals to mature registered sick children's nurses who had left the profession to return to nursing; and on future job forums as opportunities arise.