HOSPITAL staff from the European Union working in North Hampshire are bucking the national trend by staying in their roles, despite ‘significant uncertainty’ over their status in the UK post-Brexit.

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of a handful of few trusts nationwide to have more EU nationals joining its staff and fewer leaving now compared to before the Brexit vote.

From December 2014 to December 2015, 7.5 per cent of staff leaving the trust were EU nationals, compared to 6.7 per cent in December 2016 to June 2017, while in 2014/15, 8.6 per cent of new staff joining were from the EU, which rose to 9.3 per cent in 2016/17.

The figures compiled by the BBC show 80 NHS trusts nationwide had their percentage of EU leavers increase, 62 had a fall in the proportion of new staff coming from the EU while 29 had both.

Alex Whitfield, chief executive of the trust, said: “We value all of our excellent staff very highly and employ nurses, healthcare professionals and many other staff from all over the world.

They bring great experience, are hugely valued and an extremely important part of our team, helping us to deliver a high standard of care for our patients.

“We are working hard to ensure that as many of our EU staff as possible are able to remain with us, no matter what happens regarding Brexit, and we are delighted that the ongoing uncertainty does not seem to be having an effect on the number of staff from the EU leaving and joining our trust.”

In England, there are around 135,000 EU nationals working in the NHS and adult social care system, around five per cent of the workforce, but at Hampshire Hospitals, 6.53 per cent of the permanent workforce are EU or European Economic Area nationals.

NHS Employers said the Brexit vote created “significant uncertainty”

for EU nationals in the health service