Restructuring at the Welland Hospital has opened up extra positions for ward receptionists, trained nurses, health care support workers and many more, and the hospital decided to have a recruitment day to generate interest in the vacancies.

Staff were surprised to find people queuing up outside the seminar room where the event was held 45 minutes before it started, and more than 100 people had dropped by in the first two hours.

They were given information on the vacancies available, talked through the application process and got the chance to speak to some of the hospital staff about the positions they could apply for to gain some firsthand insight.

Bruce Mulraney, modern matron for Spalding hospitals who helped organise Wednesday's event, believes the prospect of moving to the new £25m Johnson Community Hospital was a big factor in the interest.

He said: "We had two recently qualified student nurses here who are keen to get in on the ground floor and to work in a new site is not something that happens very often.

"With the restructuring and a new hospital coming it created the opportunity to have a bit of a splurge and the open day was a way of getting as many interested people as possible in here at the same time.

"It has been an excellent day with more people coming in than I could have imagined."

Workers who take up the new positions at the Welland Hospital will eventually be moved to the new community hospital, which is on target to open in May 2009.

One of those who has aleady been attracted to work at the Welland Hospital, and eventually the new site, is Simon Temple, a former Peterborough District Hospital worker who has taken the position of assistant matron.

He said: "I was interested in the position and what it would allow me to do but I was aware that moving to a new hospital was a big factor as well.

"I think the day showed that people are really interested in working here and in the new building too."