Swansea Bay University Health Board is recruiting more than 550 nurses this financial year, its chief executive said. Mark Hackett said there was often "doom and gloom" in the media about the recruitment of NHS staff.
He said 350 of the 550-plus nurse recruits heading to Swansea Bay in 2022-23 would be from overseas. But Mr Hackett told a board meeting that current nurses were leaving their profession at a higher rate.
"We need to reshape the working environment which is resulting in them wanting to leave our service," he said. Some of this environment, he said, such as pay and pensions, were outside the health board's control. Mr Hackett added that only eight applications had been submitted for 47 mental health nursing posts in March this year.
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Meanwhile a total of 457 applications have been received from Nigerian nurses, according to a workforce report which went before the board.
Board chairwoman Emma Woollett said she had recently met a new cohort of "very experienced" overseas nurse recruits. She said: "We are very lucky they have chosen to join us." She added that the welcome overseas nurses received was a key reason why so many were applying and staying. The health board, which runs hospital and other health services in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot, has around 3,600 nurses and midwives.
The board meeting also heard that a comprehensive reshaping of acute medical services was going live from December 5. It'll mean an increased centralisation of acute care at Morriston Hospital, the transfer of stroke and orthopaedic rehabilitation services from Singleton Hospital to Neath Port Talbot Hospital, and a temporary 90-bed provision at Singleton Hospital for patients who were well enough to leave hospital but who didn't have an onward package of care. The health board had, on average, 306 of these so-called clinically optimised patients stuck in hospital beds last month.
Mr Hackett said there had been 100 extra patient discharges per week over the last six weeks, which he described as "remarkable". He said work to reduce hospital admissions and the time people spent in hospital had also paid dividends.
But he added: "However, we are still seeing long queues and long waits in the emergency department." The health board, he said, continued to see a number of patients "who patently don't need to be part of that emergency service". He urged people with mild or moderate conditions to use alternative sources of help.
On planned care, Mr Hackett's report said all patients waiting more than 52 weeks for initial consultation were being booked in by the end of December, but that some specialty areas - such as urology, orthopaedics and gynaecology - were struggling to clear them.
On cancer care, Mr Hackett said some progress was being made on waiting times. He added that there had been a 50% rise in colorectal cancer referrals in the last three months. His report said cancer care progress generally remained too slow, although the health board was ahead of its trajectories.
The report also said that a review would shortly identify whether the birthing unit at Neath Port Talbot Hospital, which has been closed due to staff shortages for some time, could be reopened to alleviate pressures on Singleton Hopsital's delivery suite.
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