A North East NHS Trust is hoping a £15,000 incentive will help deal with staff shortages in rural areas of our region.
The Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust - which runs a range of mental health and disability services - is now offering consultant medical doctors a welcome bonus of up to £15,000 if they take up jobs in rural Northumberland and Cumbria. The idea is to encourage experienced medics to join hard-pressed NHS services.
One boss at the trust has warned of "day-to-day difficulties" with staffing levels.
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Consultants who join inpatient and community teams in rural Northumberland and Cumbria will receive the bonus as part of the trust's Rewarding Welcome, Rewarding Career programme. It came into effect on June 20.
Rajesh Nadkarni, Executive Medical Director and Deputy Chief Executive at CNTW, said: "We are delighted to be able to offer this opportunity to doctors joining our services. Our staff have faced unprecedented challenges in recent times and have responded admirably, but we are aware of the day-to-day difficulties with staffing levels in some of our services.
"Having a full qualified staffing complement would help increase savings and more importantly enable us to provide a more therapeutic and supportive environment on our wards. We hope that by introducing this incentive we can attract people who will help us provide the best possible care to those who need us.”
The trust offers the £15,000 bonus for doctors joining services in rural parts of Northumberland and North Cumbria, with up to £3,000 available for those starting jobs in more urban areas of the two counties. It also offers up to £8,000 as part of a relocation package for applicants who don't currently live in the North East.
For more information about the incentive programme, see cntw.nhs.uk/reward-2/
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