Health Minister David Ashford has defended his department’s recruitment techniques after more staff shortages were highlighted in the House of Keys last week.

Fresh after concerns of a shortfall in the speech and language therapy service, Mr Ashford admitted that recruitment difficulties had meant it was unable to open up ’satellite’ physiotherapy services in different parts of the island.

Tim Baker (Ayre and Michael) said: ’There is a recurring theme here around recruitment as being a key challenge for the Health Service and it is broader than just physiotherapy.

’Has the department got the right approach? Does it have sufficient flexibility to attract the right candidates?’

Mr Ashford responded: ’I do believe we do.’

He said some of the recruitment problems mirrored what was happening in England.

’I would personally say we are actually in a better position recruitment-wise than if we look across the water to the NHS, particularly NHS England, in some of the roles they are trying to fill.’

He said it was important to make the right appointments.

’It is not just a case of filling a vacancy with a person and off you go. We have got to make absolutely certain that the people we are recruiting are the right people for those vacancies as well.’

Earlier, in response to a question from Dr Alex Allinson (Ramsey) about what the position was with physiotherapy services at Ramsey Cottage Hospital, Mr Ashford admitted that recruiting staff to units in the north and south of the island, for self-referral physiotherapy, was ’proving difficult’.

He said: ’The jobs have been changed to incorporate a wider breadth of service delivery and to make the roles more attractive to candidates.

’We have been working hard with universities, agencies and the specialist recruitment team in OHR to attract candidates to apply for vacancies, but we have again this month had no one apply.’

Incentive payments had not worked, either, said Mr Ashford. He added there was a severe shortage of physiotherapists in the UK and Europe.

Martyn Perkins (Garff) suggested on-island training for physiotherapists as a solution, but Mr Ashford warned training for individual specialities could be costly.

Mr Perkins countered that the long-term costs would be worse if the recruitment problems continued.