Thames Valley has highest number of NHS vacancies in the country

At least one in 25 NHS jobs in Thames Valley is unfilled – the highest figure in the country.

New data shows that the equivalent of 34,281 people were working full-time in the NHS in the region in March.

During the same month there were 1,455 adverts for full-time jobs.

This meant that a full-strength NHS in the region would have at least 35,736 staff and that at least 4.1 per cent of posts were vacant.

The NHS has published monthly data on vacancies and its current staff going back to February 2015 and this figure is the joint-second highest on record for Thames Valley.

During this time it has fluctuated between 3.0 per cent (one in 34) and 4.1 per cent (one in 24).

If anything, the real vacancy rate could be higher because the NHS sometimes advertises multiple jobs in the same advert.

Full story in Get Reading, 18 August 2017