HEALTH bosses struggling to fill key roles in East Lancashire hospitals have turned to Spain to help improve the way patients are treated.

In a pioneering scheme, a team from the NHS Executive North West has travelled to Madrid to meet trained consultants who cannot get a permanent job in their own country.

The scheme will not just bring the Spanish doctors to Blackburn and Burnley -- it also plans to give mentors to the new staff and support them with everything from settling their children into schools to which buses to catch.

Today, local health staff representatives said they would prefer to see more efforts made to recruit and train people in this country.

The Spanish health service has 20,000 spare trained doctors and consultants competing for few jobs, many of which are on short term contracts and paid less than in the UK.

Last year Blackburn recruited 12 nurses from Madrid after another staff shortage and Burnley recruited more than 20 from the Philippines.

The new pilot scheme was introduced after Health Secretary Alan Milburn signed an agreement to recruit more staff within the next year to help out the struggling health service.

Organisers hope to recruit eight associate specialists -- one level down from consultants -- for Blackburn and Burnley to specialities from histopathology to orthopaedic surgery and general surgery and 38 for the North West as a whole.

Blackburn trust needs at least two, while Burnley needs six, including anaesthetists and psychiatrists.

The new staff will be brought over on a 12 month contract, with the option to renew for a further 12 months and are expected to be made up to consultant status within a year of starting work here.

A spokesman for Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust, said: "This trust is interested to see what the potential is for recruiting from there.

"We want to be absolutely certain that they are of the appropriate standard and we are working with the royal colleges to be sure of their training and competence.

"We want them to settle into the hospital environment and they will be mentored for the first part of their time here."

Mike Bates, head of personnel for Burnley NHS Trust, said: "We have been trying to recruit these posts for a long time and there is a national shortage of psychiatrists.

"We are very pleased to have been included in this scheme and look forward to receiving the staff we need. We have already tried a similar scheme with nurses and it worked very well."

A spokesman for the NHS Executive North West said: "There are a lot of people in Spain who are well trained but cannot get jobs in the national health system over there.

"The NHS Plan set out a commitment over here to recruiting more staff and this is one way we hope to do it.

"We don't plan to bring these people over and just leave them there. They may have families and there are just the simple things such as where to go shopping to learn about. We hope that they will be attracted by the NHS's good reputation."

The executive advertised in the Spanish Press before planning the assessment trip by recruitment managers, medical advisers and language specialists this weekend.

Any recruits who are suitable and keen to take part will then be invited to England for interview in the next few weeks and could be working on a local ward within a month.

But the North West faces competition in recruiting from Spain from other European countries also keen to attract consultants.

Dill Eccleston, chairman of Blackburn Staff Side, said the health union did not object to the move to bring staff from abroad, but would prefer to see more efforts made on recruiting and training in this country.