NURSES from the Philippines will start work on Teesside on Monday after a failure to recruit UK staff.

The North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust recruited 59 Filipino nurses in May.

The first nine finished their two-week induction yesterday.

Despite high unemployment levels, the trust was unable to find enough trained UK nurses for its 90 vacancies.

The foreign nurses were recruited after a team from the trust travelled to the Philippines to hold interviews.

Filipino nurses have a high standard of training and the new recruits speak fluent English and have completed four-year nursing degrees.

The next group arrives on September 21, and the remainder on October 12.

They will be offered further work once they have completed their two-year contracts.

One new recruit, Eden Pono, 30, said that coming to England, where hours are shorter and wage levels three times higher, was a good opportunity.

"It is a bit frightening moving to another country but the staff have been very helpful," she said.

Nationally, the number of non-European nurses in the UK rose from 5,945 last year to 8,404 this year.

Forty Filipino nurses recently joined the Newcastle NHS Trust, and last year North Tyneside General Hospital recruited 30.

The remaining North Tees vacancies will be filled by UK graduates finishing their courses this year.