Desperate hospital bosses are planning radical measures to lure nurses away from other trusts, including Medway, to plug their staffing gap.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust wants to fill the equivalent of about 300 full-time vacancies for nurses and midwives and cut its £600,000 bill for agency workers.

One option being considered is buying the National Midwifery Council’s register and sending a personal note to every registered nurse within 20 miles.

This would include those at beleaguered Medway Maritime Hospital which has been in special measures since July 2013.

Possible sweeteners include “golden hello” payments, iPads, gym membership and subsidised housing.

Loyalty bonuses could also be paid to the existing 2,104 nurses and midwives, along with better overtime rates.

In his report to the trust board, head of workforce and communications Paul Bentley said: “We have had recent success with a jobs fair and plan to run similar initiatives throughout next year to attract staff and capitalise naturally on our current neighbour’s situation.”

There are 195 whole time equivalent vacancies across the two sites, but the trust would like to recruit more to compensate for the high turnover rates.

Students training with the trust could be given iPads, a bursary of £1,000 and guaranteed employment once their training is finished.

Another idea is to pay new joiners a “golden hello” of £1,200; speed up recruitment from an average of 18 weeks to 16 and even offer subsidised housing.

Mr Bentley said it would have to be more creative to attract staff. “To deliver this level of recruitment, even with greater use of social media and recruitment campaigns, the national shortage of registered nurses being experienced across the UK necessitates greater creativity and tenacity than has hitherto been exercised.”