STAFF at Oxford hospitals are being offered financial sweeteners if they 'recommend a friend' to take a job as bosses look for ways out of the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis.

Workers at Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust will earn £350 for every successful candidate they refer, with some commentators describing the scheme as 'bribery'.

The reward scheme, which focuses on clinical roles, comes after a survey revealed that almost half of OUH staff would not recommend the trust as an employer.

Oxford Mail: The emergency department at the John Radcliffe Hospital

Nearly half of workers at the John Radcliffe would not recommend working there to a friend. Picture: Oxford Mail

Hospital HR bosses have said such schemes are used widely across the NHS and are just one aspect of a wider recruitment and retention drive.

Over the last few years the trust has struggled to recruit enough front line staff, particularly entry grade qualified nurses (Band 5), which then has a knock-on effect on the number of beds and wards they can safely keep open.

The high cost of living in Oxfordshire has been cited by health leaders and politicians as the main barrier to recruitment.

Oxford Mail: The emergency department at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital. Picture: Jon Lewis

Medics at the JR work hard, but can still struggle to afford to live in the city. Picture: Jon Lewis

On seeing posters for the scheme while an inpatient at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford Mail columnist and cancer patient Bill Heine dubbed the payments 'bribes'.

He wrote last week: "The bosses are currently trying by what amounts to a bribe to entice more staff, but what people really need is a game-changer of a supply of reasonably priced houses nearby."

The trust, which runs the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and the Horton General in Banbury, is hoping that the financial incentive scheme will help bolster staffing levels in areas such as nursing, radiography and pharmacy over the next seven months.

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File picture of Sister Barbara Crowe, left, and acting senior sister Louise Kibbey on the co-ordinators’ desk at the JR. Picture: Jon Lewis

OUH interim director of workforce, Liz O’Hara, was unable to say how much the trust expected to pay out for the scheme but said it would not be a 'huge number'.

Denying the trust was 'bribing' its staff, she added: “Other NHS trusts do this as well so it’s not a new thing with the NHS.

"We have a really strong and loyal workforce - we trust the people that work for us, and what better way to show that than by rewarding our own staff?"

In total OUH employs 3,284 nurses and health visitors and is expecting to recruit a further 200 nurses from abroad over the next 12 months following a recruitment drive in India and the Philippines this autumn.

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