Baroness Harding of Winscombe (pictured), chairman of NHS Improvement, was tasked with producing this workforce plan earlier this year

The NHS is set to recruit tens of thousands of foreign nurses over the next five years in an effort to fill gaps on struggling hospital wards, a leaked report revealed yesterday.

It will begin its global recruitment drive as doctors and nurses admit suffering from exhaustion in an overstretched health service.

A failure to plan for the extra demands required by an ageing population has seen healthcare professionals leaving the service, the report said.

But the plan accepts the shortfall in staff will not be solved solely by this campaign, The Times reported.

It set an ambitious target to recruit 5,000 foreign nurses every year to deal with the shortages, more than doubling the 1,600 foreign nurses recruited to the NHS this year.

The strategy, leaked to The Times, plans to target the Philippines, India, Ireland and Australia.

It comes amid concerns about the government’s post-Brexit plans for a £30,000 salary threshold for skilled workers from all countries.

The NHS is the fifth biggest employer in the UK with 1.3 million people already there - but there are 100,000 vacancies and a shortage of qualified staff.

Baroness Harding of Winscombe, chairman of NHS Improvement, was tasked with producing this workforce plan earlier this year.

She acknowledged in the report that ‘shortages in nursing are the single biggest and most urgent’ problem facing the health service.

The report also accepted that more staff are needed to provide the better cancer care, GP service and mental health care promised by the government.

Despite the optimistic hiring targets, the plan will barely make a dent in the current shortfall.

By 2024 the NHS will still be missing 38,000 staff - but without intervention the picture is bleaker with a projected gap of nearly 70,000.

Ben Gerschlick, of the Health Foundation think tank, told The Times: ‘We do think it’s having a direct impact on patient care. The time nurses have with patients is shortened because of the amount they have to do and that has a knock-on effect on patients.’

He added: ‘It is really important to think about the situation in these countries so we are not just vacuuming up people because we haven’t been able to plan sensibly.’

Dame Donna Kinnair, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: ‘It is sad that nursing in England has been allowed to get to this state through a lack of accountability.’

Dame Donna Kinnair (pictured), chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: ‘It is sad that nursing in England has been allowed to get to this state through a lack of accountability’

She demanded ‘serious investment’ in the NHS and added: ‘It can only be done by increasing the number of student nurses here in the UK and supporting the nurses we already have.’

Figures from the Labour party showed that since 2011, voluntary resignations have written by 55 per cent and 163,094 nurses left the NHS early.

The uptake of nursing and midwifery degrees also declined by 13 per cent in the past year after the government removed bursaries for student nurses in 2017.

Dido Harding, Chair of NHS Improvement said: ‘The interim plan is still being written and will be published shortly.

‘Staff are the NHS’s biggest asset and to deliver on the promises of the Long Term Plan, the whole NHS must do more to support the frontline as it faces record patient demand.

‘Focusing on our people, their working environment, career development and ways of working isn’t a nice to have, its critical to the success of the NHS.’

A spokesman for the Department for Health and Social Care said they do not comment on leaks.