A Filipino workforce will help make up a shortfall in nursing jobs at a hospital.

Following a one-week induction course, 11 nurses will fill vacancies at the Eastbourne District General Hospital (DGH).

The East Sussex NHS Trust, responsible for the DGH and Conquest Hospital, Hastings, has about 60 vacancies across the two towns.

The group follows 17 other Filipino nurses who started work at the Conquest last month.

Cathy Stone, chief nurse, said: "We have devised an induction programme to help integrate them into the local community and the trust.

"This includes sorting out many basic things to help them settle in such as setting up bank accounts and accommodation.

"We have received tremendous support from the Filipino nurses already working in the trust. We are confident they will settle in soon and, like their predecessors, be valued members of the nursing team."

The nurses will receive one-to-one supervision over the coming weeks, in line with Nursing and Midwifery Council guidelines, which require the group to undergo a three-month adaptation course.

Part of the course will cover quirky English phrases and colloquialisms.

After the course they will take up D-grade nursing posts in the hospital as staff nurses.

The trust now has 1,058 nurses.