BREXIT has already slowed the number of EU workers taking up positions at the Great Western Hospital, new figures suggest.

But bosses at GWH say they will continue to recruit from EU nations – as well as from further afield.

Official statistics, analysed by the BBC, suggest that the proportion of EU staff leaving GWH is on the up.

In 2014/15, EU staff made up 5.2 per cent of all leavers – when 34 staff members left the hospital. Last year it was 7.7 per cent, although just 24 EU staff left.

GWH bosses also fear that uncertainty caused by the EU referendum is making it ever harder to recruit and retain frontline staff.

Last year, 63 people from other EU countries joined the staff - 8.1 per cent of all new starters.

The figure was down slightly from the year before, a bumper year when almost one in 10 new workers at the hospital were from another EU country.

Oonagh Fitzgerald, director of human resources at GWH, said: “We have a longstanding, positive relationship with our European neighbours.

“In fact, more EU nationals joined us in 2016/17 than three years ago.

“I hope that between now and 2019 the Government will do everything it can to ensure that is maintained.

“We have a truly diverse workforce, with people from all over the globe brining their unique skills, values and experience to Swindon, and it’s this mix which makes our organisation the modern and dynamic one it is today.

“Understandably, last summer’s EU referendum may have caused a degree of uncertainty in people from the continent choosing a career in not just the NHS but the UK in general, however until the full implications of Brexit are known, we will continue to take our search for skilled healthcare staff to all parts of Europe and further afield.”

In May last year, a team from GWH travelled to Spain, Portugal and India to recruit nurses. As a result, 47 EU nurses and eight non-EU nurses were given jobs. The trust also attended a recruitment event in Ireland.

Despite concerns about how post-Brexit recruitment, North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson says steps taken to improve the uptake of staff from here at home will keep the NHS on track.

He said: “We have rightly significantly increased funding for training of new nurses, GPs and medical staff, which has lessened the need to recruit further afield.”

Uncertainty around Brexit, in particular what the future holds for EU nationals living and working here, is also impacting on other health sectors.

For example, the Cavendish Coalition - a group of 37 health and social care groups campaigning on Brexit - has warned that EU staff playing such a vital role in meeting an increasing demand for social care need certainty.

Nationally, the BBC analysis suggests the number of EU nationals leaving the NHS is on the rise.

In the last full year before the referendum 7,535 EU nationals left NHS jobs, compared to 9,060 in 2016.

But the statistics are disputed by the Department of Health. It says there are currently 3,193 more EU nationals working in the NHS than at the time of the referendum.