The government today launched a new NHS jobs website in a bid to attract more people to pursue careers in the health service.

More than 90 NHS organisations across England, including all the strategic health authorities, are already advertising their vacancies on the website, which allows the public to search and apply for jobs online. It has 559 new vacancies today.

During a three-month trial from last December, more than 3,000 people applied for jobs advertised by 46 NHS organisations on the website. The site has already attracted hundreds of thousands of visits and has around 24,000 registered users.

The health minister John Hutton said the online recruitment service would boost NHS recruitment.

"To build on our success in increasing the numbers of key staff in the NHS we need to make it much easier for people to find out what jobs are available," he said.

"We also need to speed up recruitment so that people can access the rewarding careers that the NHS has to offer."

"I am delighted that the trial of the service has been such a success. Rolling out the service nationally will not only help the NHS to recruit the people it needs, but also help candidates to find and apply for the jobs they want with easily and quickly."

The five-year contract to run the website on behalf of the Department of Health was awarded to Methods Consulting, a provider of specialist IT services, and Jobsite (Worldwide) UK, a large online recruitment company.