More than 20 new nurses could be joining the staff at the James Paget University Hospital as it makes use of an overseas recruitment agency.

Board members of the Gorleston hospital's trust heard at a meeting on Friday how 24 Indian nurses had been offered positions after a successful series of Skype interviews at the end of January.

In a report discussed by directors, it was also noted that seven nurses currently training at the hospital wish to remain after qualifying in September, taking up offers of 12-month placements.

Nurse staffing was one of a number of issues discussed during the two-and-a-half hour monthly meeting, with reports also given on care quality and safety in the hospital and operational matters.

Within the quality and safety report, directors were presented with mortality figures for the last 12 months, which were described in the report as 'higher than expected'.

The report also showed that the three most frequent causes of death were pneumonia, congestive heart failure and kidney failure.

The figures were included as part of a mortality action plan, which has been set out to help maximise the hospital's ability to learn and improve clinical care. As part of this, the hospital has appointed a new mortality lead and nonexecutive director lead to the board.

Meanwhile, it was also revealed that the hospital dealt with 17 cases of C Difficile, a bug which patients can catch while being treated in hospital, in the past 12 months.

Throughout the meeting, directors addressed continuing pressures on the hospital, particularly surrounding the accident and emergency department.

The hospital was faced with a particularly busy winter period, with the number of patients attending A&E up by 5.83pc in January. It also saw an annual increase of 7.83pc.

Additional pressures also saw 126 ambulance handovers of longer than 30 minutes, 40 of which took longer than an hour to carry out.

However, acting chief operating officer Graham Wilde's report stated that NHS England expects a full system recovery by the end of next month.

The next meeting of the board of directors is scheduled to take place on Friday, March 31, at 9.30am.