Thousands of jobseekers flocked to events last week to find out more about roles at the new Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, which opens in Northumberland this summer.
Around 5,000 people attended Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust sessions on Friday and Sunday at Manor Walks Shopping Centre in Cramlington to learn more about the jobs for domestic, catering, portering and security staff.
Applications for the jobs at the Cramlington site are open at {http://www.jobs.nhs.uk|www.jobs.nhs.uk|Link to the NHS jobs website.} and the closing date is next Monday (January 19).
The roles will help support the running of the purpose-built hospital which will be the first in the country dedicated to providing emergency care, with A&E consultants working 24/7 and consultants in a range of specialities working seven days a week.
The events were also a boost for the shopping centre and the local economy.
Andrea Stoker, general manager at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are absolutely delighted with the response for jobs at our new Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital and would like to thank the thousands of people who came along to our sessions to find out more about the opportunities available. We were deeply impressed by local people’s interest in the roles and, above all, their enthusiasm for our new hospital which will be the first purpose-built hospital of its kind in the country. This is a great boost for the area and we would like to remind people that this is just the first of our recruitment programmes for our new hospital. We would encourage anyone who’s interested to keep checking our website and NHS Jobs website for updates.”
Successful applicants for the facilities jobs will be employed by Northumbria Healthcare Facilities Management Ltd which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
Bruno Coppola, general manager at Manor Walks Shopping and Leisure, said: “The building of the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital to Cramlington is offering a fantastic boost to our surrounding communities and we were delighted to welcome Northumbria Healthcare to Manor Walks as part of its recruitment programme. Since plans were set out for the new hospital there has been great anticipation across the county, particularly regarding the potential employment opportunities. This interest was certainly reflected in the number of visitors to the centre over the course of the events, with our footfall figures on Sunday increasing by 32er cent year-on-year.”
The new hospital will treat seriously-ill patients from across Northumberland and North Tyneside, enabling them to be seen by the right specialist for their condition quickly which is widely proven to improve clinical outcomes. Walk-in A&E services at the trust’s general hospitals will continue to care for people with less serious injuries.
Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of the NHS in England has endorsed the Northumbria approach which is in line with his ‘urgent and emergency care services’ review which calls for larger ‘specialist emergency centres’ with consistent levels of senior staffing in order to maximise chances of survival and a good recovery for patients.
This year, the trust will also be recruiting experienced nurses, particularly in elderly care, to work at its general hospital sites in Hexham, North Tyneside and Wansbeck. These sites will continue to treat the majority of patients and become centres of excellence for patients to receive high quality and timely planned and on-going care.