Trust that runs Colchester Hospital currently has around 500 job vacancies
That's around 5% of the total workforce
There are currently around 500 job vacancies in the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Trust, which manages Colchester and Ipswich Hospitals.
This number is equivalent to about 5% of the trust's total workforce, according to the trust's CEO, Nick Hulme.
However, he's not worried about these figures and says they're actually quite low: "It's actually low for us and it's low for the NHS.
"There has been a bit of a rush of people applying to work in the NHS over the past two years. We've had obviously a lot of exposure and people have seen that there are lots of different jobs in the NHS, rather than just traditional clinical roles like nurses, doctors and therapists.
"So whilst it seems like a big number, it's certainly manageable in terms of our current operations and performance."
He said they've seen a lot of transfer from tourism and hospitality industry professionals, who swapped jobs during the pandemic for more secure, higher paid jobs with more sociable hours: "We have employed people from the some of those industries because they were furloughed or laid off during the lockdowns, came to work in the NHS and have stayed.
"I know it's frustrating for those businesses, but it's been a bit of a windfall for us!"
Whilst Nick isn't overly worried, there are some positions which are tougher to fill: "There are one or two hard to fill posts, like clinical specialty areas, for example sonographers - the people who do ultrasound investigations, as well as positions in our imaging and diagnostic department and consultant posts in A&E.
"Locally and nationally they're difficult to fill posts, so that can cause us some challenges but... we've never had our services threatened specifically by staff shortages."