MANY young nurses are training with the South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust and then quitting for pastures new soon after qualifying.

Twenty-one nurses entered training with the trust in February, but only 12 stayed on after qualifying. And of the 30 nurses who started in October, 20 stayed.

The figures came from Roy Darby, chief executive of the trust, at a meeting of the South Bucks Community Health Council on Monday.

Hospital services in South Bucks were still under strain in the face of a nursing recruitment crisis and bed shortages, he said.

South Bucks still has 100 vacancies for trained nurses.

Mr Darby said he could not be totally sure why the retention of staff was so difficult but said house prices and pay obviously had an impact.

He explained: "It's not about availability of jobs; that's not the problem.

"It's probably more about the cost of living, pay, that sort of issue.

"We are talking about young people and they are moving to other areas."

Mr Darby said nurses were already give reiterated the difficulties because elderly patients, ready to be discharged, had to stay in hospital beds because of a lack of places in residential homes, or home care provided by social services.

He said: "It is having an effect on our ability to discharge patients from hospital.

"We have been in extensive discussions with the health authority and with local MPs."