The main hospital trust serving Brighton and Hove has recruited more than 200 nurses from abroad over the past six months.
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust shared the scale of overseas recruitment with Healthwatch Brighton and Hove in response to concerns about staff shortages.
The trust, which runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, said: “Nurse staffing levels have been challenging over the past six months.”
The trust said that it had appointed a deputy chief nurse last September to oversee this area and had been recruiting actively in other countries.
It said: “In the last four months, she has recruited 206 international nurses from Europe and the Philippines, who will be starting in a phased manner over the next four to five months.
“Local and national recruitment continues and we are working closely with the University of Brighton and other universities in the south of England to recruit newly qualified nurses and increase our ‘return to practice’ nurses.”
Healthwatch made an unannounced visit to four wards and found that staffing and rates of pay for bank nurses were an issue in two of the wards.
The trust said: “From April 2015 bank rates will be increased to encourage staff to fill gaps in rotas and reduce the numbers of agency nurses employed in the trust.
“In the meantime overtime is being paid to substantive staff.”
