New hospital having to turn away patients through lack of room

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust has been strongly criticised after figures showed that, on 87 occasions last year, it diverted ambulances from accident and emergency (A&E) departments for periods of up to 10 hours.

The statistics, compiled by Channel 4 News, reveal that some patients were turned away from the new Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, which unions say has fewer beds than the hospital it replaced.

The A&E department at Pontefract Hospital has been closed temporarily because of staff shortages and, when Pinderfields is shut to new admissions, patients are normally taken to Dewsbury – a further 10 miles away.

Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford Labour MP Yvette Cooper described the figures as “dreadful”.

She said: “What that means is (a) huge number of patients supposed to be going to Pinderfields being sent (elsewhere) and not given the treatment they need as fast as they need it.”

NHS figures show there have been 171 “diverts” from A&E departments across England since November 21 last year, but only two have involved health trusts based in Yorkshire.

Mid Yorkshire had ambulances turned away for a period on the weekend of December 2 to 4. Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Trust had similar arrangements in place on December 12.

Jim Petter, director of professional standards at the College of Paramedics, said: “Patients may be suffering if it takes longer to get them to a point of definitive care.”

A spokesman for the trust said available capacity on all sites was used to manage emergency demand in the safest and most effective way for patients.

“With the support of the ambulance service, we occasionally divert ambulances to the site with available capacity to allow patients to be admitted for care in the most timely way. Critically ill or injured patients always go to the nearest appropriate emergency department.

The temporary overnight closure at Pontefract had not led to more ambulances being diverted.