BOSSES within the area’s hospital are facing a workforce crisis as new figures reveal nurses and midwives are leaving the profession in unprecedented numbers across the country.

The latest data from the Nursing and Midwifery Council found 20 per cent more people left their jobs than began a career as a nurse or midwife last year.

The situation is a concern for bosses at the trust in charge of Barrow’s Furness General Hospital who have been forced to close beds this year because they do not have enough staff to cover them safely.

The news also follows a weekend in which sickness contributed to a shortage of 52 nurses across the wards of the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust.

The organisation's leaders are now are urgently attempting to bolster staff numbers before the winter when pressure upon services is expected to peak once more.

Sue Smith, UHMBT's executive chief nurse, described the hard work of staff on the wards as 'inspirational'.

But she warned: "There are a number of pressures on hospital and community based NHS staff.

"As with many trusts across the country, UHMBT continues to work very hard to recruit and mitigate the impact of the national reduction in nurses available to work.

"There are currently 118 vacancies across medical, surgical wards and emergency departments throughout UHMBT hospitals.

"This is a reducing trend with five registered nurses due to start this month, 11 with a booked start date and another 46 recruited for September 2017.

"In addition, we have employed a number of strategies to reduce risk as much as possible, including the development of our modern apprenticeship, senior nurse leaders working on wards and developing new roles and skills across our workforce."

Statistics showing a surge in the number of nurses leaving their jobs - while the numbers of qualified staff arriving to work in hospitals from Europe has slowed - have now been passed to the government by UK regulator the NMC.

At the same time, there has been a spike in the volume of nurses registering to work in Australia, the USA and Ireland, where pay and working conditions are thought to be preferable.

Despite recruiting 104 qualified nurses from overseas who are ready to work in theatres and on the wards of UHMBT's hospitals, just two have been able to commence in post.

The others have struggled to achieve the required score in stringent English language tests said to pose difficulties for even those who speak English as a first language.

Mrs Smith added: "The trust monitors staffing and acuity at least three times a day, seven days a week to ensure we move staff to where they are needed, if appropriate.

"Sickness rates remain very low at UHMBT, and I am grateful to our front line staff for their continued motivation and passion that comes from putting patients and their colleagues at the centre of all they do.

"The teamwork we see every day is inspirational."

Jackie Smith, NMC chief executive, said: "Our figures today show for the first time that there are now more nurses and midwives leaving the register than joining it.

"At a time of increased pressure on the healthcare workforce to deliver quality patient care, we hope our data will provide evidence to support government and employers to look in detail at how they can reverse this trend."