The new NHS online careers site, first trialled in November 2003, is now officially up and running.

The site contains advice and information on NHS careers, as well as a job board.

A spokesperson for NHS careers said that the site was not intended to supersede recruitment agencies and newspaper advertising.

“Our first priority is to the NHS,” she said. “But we realise that some print media, for instance, will feel threatened so we haven’t made it compulsory. The idea is to streamline the recruitment procedure.”

But some feel that while the site may appear to reduce the cost of recruitment, it may not fulfil the NHS’s objectives.

“This will largely appeal to people who already know they want to work in the NHS,” says Simon Devitt, managing director of online site fish4jobs.co.uk. “They’ll be getting people they would have had anyway. The NHS needs to attract people from outside the public sector.”