A EUROPE-wide recruitment search has begun to find nurses to work at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow.

Recruitment firm, Kate Cowhig International Recruitment Specialists have placed adverts in a number of publications as well as posting on Facebook.

The interviews in Portugal take place later in Oporto between August 22nd and 28th.

It is nothing unusual to see nurses from around the world flocking to the hospital but it may also beg the question as to why, with the unemployment queue lengthening, there are so few nurses coming from Harlow.

One Harlow nurse, who did not wish to be named said: “Around ten years ago, girls started flocking to health and beauty courses. You would see them around town in their uniforms and trolleys. That was all well and good but about one in a hundred got jobs.

“Many would have been great nurses but would have been out off by the idea of having to get a degree.”