A troubled NHS trust has appointed 33 Portuguese nurses as part of its plans to improve staffing levels.

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Trust (BHRUT) revealed in its annual report last week that only had 75 per cent of the staff it required just three months ago.

BHRUT, which runs King George Hospital in Goodmayes and Queen’s Hospital in Romford, is currently in special measures with a debt of around £40 million - and was criticised for poor standards of care.

June’s 75 per cent figure did improve to 91 per cent in July, but in response to the report, it has released its plan to make up this shortfall in staff.

This includes the appointment of 33 Portuguese nurses, increasing pay of bank staff, improving training, and redesigning the rotas of the A&E department at King George Hospital.

BHTUT director Deborah Tarrant, said: “An enormous amount of work has taken place to recruit and retain high quality staff for our hospitals.

“We have strengthened our focus on recruitment campaigns and improved processes and we are boosting our reward and benefits package to help make us an employer of choice.

“To reduce our dependency on agency staffing, we increased our bank staff pay rate this month to encourage people to join us rather than expensive agencies.

“Overseas recruitment campaigns have been particularly successful, with 33 Portuguese nurses recently appointed.

“We are also working closely with our Local Education and Training Boards to improve the training we offer to doctors and our support to new doctors joining us.

“We have recently redesigned the rotas within our A&E departments to better match staffing levels to demand.

“Our major challenge continues to be the recruitment of A&E doctors but this is a national issue faced by many hospitals.

“We are working with our partners to develop innovative solutions to address the problem.”