Health chiefs in North Wales have been forced to recruit more than 70 Spanish nurses, amid a staffing crisis gripping the country's health system. It has emerged the situation in recruiting staff to posts in the Labour-run Welsh NHS is so desperate that managers have resorted to interviewing potential candidates via Skype. It comes as experts blamed a failure to reach A&E waiting times, in part, on an inability to recruit doctors and nurses across the UK. New figures published yesterday revealed A&E waiting times have reached their lowest levels in England in a decade. The Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has recruited more than 70 nurses from Spain, some having been interviewed via Skype, amid a staffing crisis in the NHS. File picture
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The NHS in North Wales has recruited more than 70 nurses from Spain
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It comes amid staffing crisis affecting NHS bodies across the UK
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45 of the 70 nurses have already moved to Wales with the rest set to follow
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Health chiefs said they are working with universities to train more nurses
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But completing a degree and experience takes up to three years
'While recruiting nurses from abroad suggests the scale of recruitment problems in Wales, many patients will welcome increased nurse numbers on hospital wards in @placeholder.