More than 100 full-time nursing jobs at Huddersfield and Calderdale hospitals remained vacant at the end of last year.
There was the equivalent of 108 unfilled full-time nursing positions at Huddersfield Royal Infimary and Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax, on December 1, 2015, according to figures obtained by the BBC.
This means that 7% of the nursing positions at the hospitals, run by Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust (CHFT), remained vacant.
Hospital trusts struggling to staff their wards with in-house nurses are instead, using expensive nursing agencies.
In-debt CHFT is thought to have spent approximately £5m on agency nurses last year.
The figures have prompted concern from nurses’ union, the Royal College of Nursing, that health chiefs are failing to address an ongoing nursing shortages crisis.
RCN Regional Director for Yorkshire, Glenn Turp, said the nursing shortage was still the NHS’s ‘Achilles heel’.
Mr Turp said: “The increasing nurse shortage is extremely worrying news.
“Time and again the RCN has warned of a crisis in nurse recruitment and the dangerous consequences of short staffing.
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“Figures from the BBC show that the gap between the NHS staff needed and the staff available is widening with some 1,565 nursing vacancies in Yorkshire and the Humber region...
“The very modest increases made in training places are not nearly enough. They simply won’t tackle the current problems or the significant challenges facing the NHS over the coming decade.
“Plans to take away bursaries from those who want to train to be a nurses, forcing them to rely solely on large loans, are yet another threat to nursing numbers.
“Yet again the NHS finds that failing to train enough staff is its Achilles heel, putting nurses under relentless pressure trying to deliver the best care they can.”
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CHFT told the Examiner it recruited 275 nurses last year, an increase of 35 on the previous year.
Director of Nursing Julie Dawes, said: “When it is necessary CHFT will always use agency nurses to ensure that the quality of care we provide for our patients and their families is not compromised on our wards and departments.
“As the figures show, this is a national situation currently being faced by many other trusts.
“We are working hard to reduce our spend on agency nurses, however delivering safe, compassionate care for our patients and their families is paramount for everyone at CHFT.”
