NHS aims for German doctors

Welsh hospitals remain short of consultants

Consultants in Germany are being targeted by the NHS to fill vacancies in Wales.

A delegation representing the Welsh Assembly and Wales's health service hospital trusts has travelled to Berlin in a mission to find suitable staff.

Dr Wolfgang Spaeth will tell his German colleagues about his life in Wales

They were planning to meet German doctors at a recruitment fair in the British Embassy on Wednesday.

Nearly 100 consultant posts in Wales are currently vacant, as the nation suffers a severe shortage of health workers in many key areas.

Despite spending thousands of pounds on advertisements, NHS trusts have been unable to recruit the staff they need.

Radiographers and psychiatrists are in particularly short supply.

Managers at Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth, west Wales, have managed to recruit one German doctor already.

He has returned to his native country as part of the Welsh delegation seeking new recruits in Berlin.

Up to 20 NHS trusts from the north of England were also due to attend the British Embassy jobs fair.

Many Filipino nurses have come to work in the UK

The assembly plans to arrange similar events if the initiative proves successful.

In February, it was revealed that German doctors and nurses have been recruited to carry out "fast-track" operations at a military hospital in Portsmouth, southern England.

Health officials in Wales may also consider recruiting medical staff from Eastern European countries such as Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.

The recruitment of nurses from Far Eastern countries such as the Philippines has been controversial, amid claims that their homelands can ill-afford to lose them.

The First Minister Rhodri Morgan has promised that Wales will develop a "world-class" health service, as a result of £1.8bn extra funding pledged by chancellor Gordon Brown in the Budget.