The Bristol Royal Infirmary is about to fill half of its nursing vacancies after a recruitment drive in Australia.

The BBC's Matthew Hill: A solution being tried in several UK hospitals

The hospital has just interviewed 120 candidates across the continent and 80 of them are about to start working in the west of England.

Like most other hospitals across the country, the Bristol Royal Infirmary has a severe shortage of nurses - it needs another 150.

Jayne Thomas and Karen Davies

Part of the blame for the shortage has been the emigration of British nurses to Australia like Karen Davies and Jayne Thomas.

Karen said: "I am getting to do a lot more things than I would have done at home. I play tennis, and we have a lovely house, which we probably would not have had at home."

Jayne said: "It is very reasonable to live over here. The cost of living is so much better."

Michael Broadhurst: "I want to learn"

Now British hospitals are fighting back. Australian cardiac nurse Michael Broadhurst has just been offered a post in Bristol's heart centre.

Despite the Bristol heart scandal, the centre is now one of the best in the country.

"I can learn new techniques or different ways of how they conduct nursing care," he said. "It is what nearly every Australian nurse does, they go overseas at one time or another."

Good career choice

Bristol Royal Infirmary recruitment officer Mandy Gemmell said: "We thought we would get people in their mid-20s looking to travel in Europe for a while, and willing to come to England and nurse, but we were surprised by the various levels of experience."

Mandy Gemell: Australians see coming to the UK as a good career choice

She added that Australians nurses saw working in the UK as a good career choice and an opportunity to work in "a very good health service".

She said pay in the Australian healthcare system was comparable with the UK.

And she said there would have to be more flexibility in nursing to encourage more Britons into the profession as well as methods for bringing people who had left nursing back into hospitals and more promotion of nursing in schools as a career option.

Bristol Royal Infirmary: Recruiting from Australia

The BRI's most chronic shortage lies in midwifery. Last month 19 vacancies resulted in a ward closure.

Mothers were told they could not be guaranteed a pain-relieving epidural injection during childbirth, and many had to leave only a few hours after giving birth.

BRI managers admit that while the Australian recruitment drive may be innovative, it is only a short-term solution. The maximum time nurses can work here is two years.