Hospitals in north east Essex are short of 13 consultants due to newly-created positions and a national shortage of specialists in certain medical fields.

Essex Rivers Healthcare Trust has not been able to find two new accident and emergency consultants for Colchester General Hospital, even after it was given cash for the extra posts.

Some consultants working at its Colchester hospitals have moved on to other jobs, while others have retired.

Some specialities are suffering from the national shortage of consultants, such as in dermatology and radiology, said a Trust spokesman.

New posts have been created in radiotherapy and ophthalmology with new money.

Until permanent staff can be found the posts are filled by locum consultants so services can be maintained, said the spokesman.

He stressed that it was not because the Trust could not attract to these top level posts, as they had attracted staff to some specialities where it was hard to recruit, such as histopathology and ophthalmology.

The spokesman stressed it did not symbolise an exodus of consultants, and the Trust now employed more than it had previously.

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