Reading’s main hospital for people with mental illness has a 36 per cent shortage of qualified staff and is struggling to recruit from the EU amid uncertainty over Brexit.

Prospect Park’s vacancy rate of 22 per cent - or 53 posts - jumps to 36 per cent when only qualified staff are considered.

The hospital has been able to safely staff the wards despite the vacancies, according to David Townsend, chief operating officer at Royal Berkshire NHS Trust.

Mr Townsend said: “We have staffing shortages in particular areas and Prospect Park is one of those. They tend to be in areas where the work is tougher.

“At the moment, we have got a vacancy rate of 22 per cent. That is 53 posts that we haven’t got filled.

“They are the staff that you can’t replace overnight. That’s why education and that flow of people coming through is so important.”

The trust has been successful in recruiting doctors at Prospect Park Hospital and currently are fully staffed in this area.

Julian Emms, chief executive at the trust, said some of the pressures could be reduced by working more closely with higher education establishments such as Reading University, and making better use of land to improve the availability of housing.

He added: “We are not going to dress it up. I don’t think if you pulled us up in a year’s time the staffing situation would be any better".

Councillor Graeme Hoskin, lead member for Health and Wellbeing, expressed concern over how Brexit would impact on staff levels. Prospect Park hospital currently has around 400 staff from the EU.

Cllr Hoskin said: “So much of this is out of our hands locally and even in NHS England. The government was defeated yet again on their Brexit strategy.

“It’s really worrying where that is going to leave the NHS, our public services and Reading, as a high cost area in terms of recruiting staff, when Brexit is in such a state of shambles.

“The RBH are suffering now in terms of continental EU citizens. I think it is a major crisis for the NHS."

Mr Townsend added: “We have not lost anyone, it is just that no one has joined. [Brexit] has reduced the supply line.”

The vacancy statistics were discussed at Reading Borough Council’s (RBC) Adult Social Care, Children’s Services and Education committee on Thursday, February 14.

Royal Berkshire Trust management delivered a report detailing progress against the recommendations made by Healthwatch on theeExperience of people who had been admitted to psychiatric wards at Prospect Park Hospital.

A jury inquest in September 2018 found inadequate care at the hospital contributed to a woman choking to death; this was one of three one of three choking-related deaths at Prospect Park Hospital within a year.