Crippling nurse shortages has forced the seven-month closure of a minor injuries unit as the overstretched NHS faces up to a growing workforce crisis.
The Altrincham Hospital facility will remain closed until at least August after shutting its doors in November, reports the Manchester Evening News.
The latest further five-week suspension of service comes due to a lack of emergency nurse practitioners following years of broken Tory promises.
It flies in the face of Boris Johnson ’s 2019 pledge to recruit 50,000 more nurses, making the commitment a cornerstone of his general election campaign.
The NHS is still struggling to recruit the tens of thousands of new staff needed, forcing vital units like at Altrincham Hospital to close.
Data from the Nursing and Midwifery Council shows that the number of nurses and midwives from the European Economic Area and able to work in the UK has fallen for the last three years in a row.
Ministers have been warned that one in five posts on some wards are vacant as recruitment from the European Union has collapsed.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, says it has been "trying very hard" to attract EPNs to the service but pointed to a "national challenge" in recruiting for these posts.
Councillors on Trafford's Health Scrutiny Committee will be briefed on the situation on June 28.
In a letter to the committee, the trust's group director of strategy Darren Banks said: "We continue to care for significant numbers of patients who are Covid-19 positive and face higher than usual staff absences associated with the ongoing management of the pandemic."
He said this meant the trust was having to focus the time of its ENPs at the urgent treatment centre at Trafford General Hospital and the emergency department at Wythenshaw Hospital "given that these departments receive the most acutely unwell patents".
He went on: "This has ensured that these two key services remain both clinically safe and accessible to the population across Trafford and beyond."
Mr Banks said the trust would continue with its ENP recruitment attempts but "we require options in the event that we do not succeed with this".
He said a "detailed options appraisal" had begun with a view to ensuring services can be maintained which are "safe and sustainable" for patients. Mr Banks said that once the appraisal was complete the next steps would be discussed with NHS commissioning and local authority colleagues.
He added: "We are also actively considering which services can be provided from Altrincham Hospital without having to rely on Emergency Nurse Practitioners."
It comes as the UK faces an "uncertain" winter as it tackles both flu and Covid-19 according to the chief of the Health Security Agency.
