TOP jobs at Hereford County Hospital remain unfilled because of a shortage of specialists across the country.

National advertising has failed to produce one application for a cardiologist where the post has been vacant for nearly 12 months.

The hospital has also been unable to recruit two radiologists despite an extensive recruitment drive.

Hereford Hospitals Trust chief executive Jeremy Millar said it was a national problem and one difficult to overcome.

"This is not about money, but a shortage of qualified people,'' he said.

"There are 60 vacancies for cardiologists across the UK,'' he added.

Specialist staff

The only answer to the problem was to try and recruit people from overseas or wait for people in this country to complete their training.

In the next few months a list of specialist registrars would have done this and the trust would be seeking to attract one to Hereford.

The shortage of consultants meant the trust had been obliged to force the pace in doing things differently.

In cardiology more use was being made of GPs, technical staff and nursing staff with special skills and the department was managing effectively although ideally a new consultant was needed.

Much the same problem existed in radiology with not enough people in training and hospitals being forced to wait for people to qualify, said Mr Millar.

Changes were already on the way in the department and new electronic systems meant the workload for consultants could be reduced.

While radiologists normally checked all readings they were now more likely to be called upon for second opinions, while radiographers were able to take on more responsibility, particularly relating to ultra sound work.

The hospital had also acquired the services of a locum in the department.

Mr Millar did not think patients were being affected and that waiting time for scanning on the new MRI equipment had been drastically reduced to a few weeks.

He agreed that in some cases people on a lower priority had been pushed down the list with waiting times for X-ray in some cases being up to eight months.

"Despite being unable to recruit the people we want the good news is that we are coping,'' said Mr Millar.