A MAJOR recruitment drive has been launched to recruit staff to expand the range of services at the Lymington New Forest Hospital.

Staff shortages recently led to the closure of the 12-bed Longbeech Ward at the £36 million hospital, opened at Ampress in January.

Hampshire Primary Care Trust chief executive Gareth Cruddace said: "The hospital has been operating under capacity since it opened at the start of the year while plans to include the hospital in the Independent Sector Treatment Centre programme are finalised.

"It was intended to increase activity when this process was complete.

"However, as the ISTC programme is currently being revalidated, we have decided to expand the range of services and the number of patients that can be treated at Lymington to ensure that it serves local people in the best way possible.

"To support this, we launched a major exercise to recruit an additional 30 staff some weeks ago, which has attracted considerable interest."

Services to be expanded are: radiology, general surgery, orthopaedics, podiatry, outpatients and pain services.

The PCT previously said the recruitment drive would take two months to complete and "once the full staff complement is in place, we can look to reopen the Longbeech Ward".

Staff at Lymington are also awaiting the arrival of a CT scanner which has been part-funded to the tune of £400,000 by the Lymington Appeals Committee.

It will provide improved diagnostic facilities, particularly for cancer and stroke patients, and will mean fewer trips to Southampton or Bourne-mouth hospitals.