More than 400 staff from the EU have quit their jobs in hospitals in Kent in the run-up to and after the Brexit vote, figures show.

And there are 670 unfilled nurses jobs at hospitals run by three trusts, according to data on vacancy rates provided to the KM Group.

Health chiefs and nursing leaders say Brexit has made recruiting staff even more difficult, largely because of the uncertainty surrounding the status of EU nationals.

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The Royal College of Nursing said that hospitals faced a "perfect storm" with Brexit just one factor in a growing recruitment crisis.

The figures disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act indicate the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust has seen the highest exodus of employees, with 134 EU nationals quitting in 2016-17 before Brexit and 127 since the referendum last June.

The figures cover not just nursing staff but clinicians and administrative staff.

In a statement, the trust said it was finalising plans to recruit from outside the EU to fill vacancies.

“The trust remains mindful of both current and future recruitment challenges facing the NHS.

"To meet these challenges, the trust has a comprehensive recruitment strategy that includes local, national and international recruitment.”

Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust’s chief executive, Susan Acott warned leaving the EU was already making it more difficult to employ nurses from the continent.

“Brexit has given some of our European and international staff a sense of uncertainty and anxiety about the future.”

“We aren’t able to recruit enough registered nurses locally and until the future becomes clearer, we anticipate that it will become harder to recruit staff from abroad.”

However, its figures showed that it had seen the lowest number of employees from the EU of all Kent trusts.

The East Kent Hospitals University Trust issued a short statement in which it said it valued its diverse workforce and continued to work hard “locally, nationally and internationally” to fill vacancies through recruitment websites, open days and fairs, EU and non-EU recruitment campaigns overseas.

The reliance on overseas staff in the NHS is underlined by separate figures showing that Kent’s three hospital trusts together still have more than 1,100 on their payroll - with the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust accounting for more than half.

The Medway NHS Trust did not respond to the request but in April, it revealed more than 200 nurses from the Philippines had been offered jobs at Medway Maritime Hospital to fill vacancies.

Nursing leaders say hospitals are facing a perfect storm over staff shortages with Brexit being a key factor.

Patricia Marquis, the regional director for the Royal College of Nursing that oversees Kent, said a combination of issues were making recruiting enough staff increasingly difficult for hospitals.

She said in the immediate period after Brexit, many nurses from overseas had suffered abuse and made to feel unwelcome.

“That was really problematic for a while. What has continued is the uncertainty about what Brexit will bring and it is not clear what will happen and what will happen to their families.”

Employees from the EU were looking elsewhere for jobs as a result of that uncertainty.

“Nursing as a profession is in demand worldwide so the opportunity for staff to go back to their own countries or other countries is there and people are beginning to explore those options and taking them.”

She said the introduction of English tests was also deterring would-be applicants as was the government’s decision to end bursaries for those training to become nurses at university.

“There has been a total lack of foresight in the training of people.

"There is a massive problem in recruitment in the UK because a decision was made that we needed fewer nurses now than we actually do.”

“So we have a perfect storm brewing.

"We already have 40,000 vacancies; we have European nurses choosing to look elsewhere; we have wider problems in recruiting from overseas and potentially in the next three years a massive fall off in the number of new nurses being trained.