A NURSING recruitment drive is being launched by a North-East hospital as part of plans to meet growing demand for its services.

Bosses at James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, said it has been exceptionally busy in the last six months and the numbers of patients coming into hospital as emergencies continues to grow year-on-year.

Plans are now in place to open up 28 additional beds in a new acute medical ward.

Extra beds are also planned in other medical, surgical and trauma specialties which means the trust is looking to recruit more than 100 new staff including consultants and nurses.

Chief executive Tricia Hart said: "A priority issue we have to address is how we deal with the mismatch of capacity and patient demand, particularly on the James Cook site.

"We don't want our patients having to be moved into other wards because of the pressure on beds or having to cancel operations at the last minute. Our staff are great and have coped incredibly well but we need to put some investment in this now."