Hundreds applied to join KGH to help at the height of Covid pandemic

More than 400 people applied for jobs at KGH at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic as the hospital battled staff absences.

Last week it was revealed hundreds of KGH staff were forced to self-isolate and miss work because of the virus to protect patients.

The hospital joined a recruitment drive in March to help as it faced an increased demand.

And between March and April the hospital successfully recruited to 186 posts - including 84 healthcare assistants, 39 porters, 24 housekeepers, 31 nurses and eight doctors.

Chief people officer Mark Smith said: “I want to thank every single person who applied to join #TeamKGH during the pandemic to help us in the battle against coronavirus.

“The pandemic has shown just how much people value the NHS but clearly we understand there was also concern about working in the front line against the disease.

“Nevertheless people did show their support for KGH by applying for all the roles that we advertised.

“We want to thank all those who were successful - and unsuccessful - for their applications during this difficult time.

“Our new colleagues have, and continue, to play an important role during coronavirus. This was particularly important during the period when our staffing levels were impacted on through staff self-isolation, shielding and coronavirus itself.”

KGH human resources manager for workforce planning, Rebecca Bell, said: “We expected that recruiting to hospital posts during the pandemic would be challenging because people

would be concerned about how little was known about Covid-19, especially in the early days as it spread across the country with devastating effects on families.

“But in fact we found that people did still very much want to work in healthcare and were reassured by the training given and the precautions being taken by our expert teams. “

To make recruitment quicker and easier KGH introduced a fast-track process which was supported by national changes in NHS Employers standards and processes to enable them to

provide pre-employment clearances in a quicker time.

All interviews were virtual, reducing the need for candidates to come onto the trust site and attend face-to-face interviews. Candidates were able to scan their identity documents and completed forms and send directly back to recruitment via an electronic recruiting system. These were then verified and when candidates were cleared they came in to collect ID badges and uniform.

Mark said: “I would also like to thank my own team who worked really hard and pulled out all the stops during the early days of the pandemic to ensure we were able to safely and quickly

recruit additional colleagues to join the team at the trust.

“This was at a time when they themselves were coping with the challenges of lockdown and the impact of the pandemic on their families and friends.”

Message from the editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the highest standards in the world. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers and consequently the advertising that we receive.

We are now more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you