Hospital chiefs are struggling to recruit nurses, specialists and managers, a meeting heard.

Board members at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust were told several areas of the organisation could not find suitable staff.

The board was told a drive for 30 new nurses was going to be troublesome, while the hunt for a specialist hip surgeon for the elderly had been going on for four years.

A bid to get a new assistant director for estates had also failed due to poor quality candidates, with some shortlisted staff not even turning up for their interviews.

Director of nursing, Helen Thomson, said: “It’s a very tough market, there’s a national shortage of nurses.

“It’s going to take a lot of energy to recruit.”

Referring to the hospital’s search for a hip specialist or orthogeriatrician, HR chief Julie Hull, said: “We’re fishing in a pond that doesn’t have any fish in it.”

Estates chief, Lesley Hill, said their need for a chartered engineer qualified assistant director, as insisted by health watchdog the CQC, had also been hit with problems.

She said: “We’ve advertised for an Assistant director of estates twice but we’ve not been able to fill the position.

“The quality of people has not been good enough.”

Board member Professor Peter Roberts added: “We’re not training enough engineers.”

The trust, which is considering using a headhunter to fill the highly paid role, currently has 23 vacancies on its website, of which more than half are nursing roles.

Two of the consultant vacancies command salaries of up to £101,451.