Troubled NHS Trust warns of ‘massive changes’

The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs care in Wakefield, Pontefract and Dewsbury, was plunged into fresh turmoil last year after a multi-million pound black hole was uncovered in its finances amid further criticism of its services.

Now a review has made 20 recommendations for urgent action to improve the running of the trust, which serves 550,000 people, and its services.

It said early priorities must include offering better maternity and A&E care. Pontefract Hospital’s casualty unit has been closed overnight since November but yesterday managers said it will re-open in September staffed by GPs.

The report, which was ordered by regional health chiefs, expressed alarm at the financial problems which had emerged.

“We were very concerned about the financial position and what appeared to be a lack of both in-year control and of a strategic plan for securing financial recovery over the next few years,” it said.

It said 20 per cent of the trust’s costs needed to be stripped out but there was as yet no financial strategy to do that.

A planned reconfiguration of services due to be drawn up later this year needed to be linked to savings and there was no evidence this was being done.

It said the changes needed to harness community services provided outside hospital but were not a “quick fix” to its financial problems.

Efforts needed to be focused on providing core services which could see prestigious regional burns and spinal injuries care moved from Wakefield to other parts of Yorkshire.

GPs in Wakefield had spent 92 per cent of their funds on planned care at the trust but this had fallen to as little as 80 per cent as patients were instead treated at neighbouring hospitals including Goole and Barnsley.

It concluded it would be “very difficult” for the trust to win elite foundation status, as required by Ministers, although it found there was nothing unique about the area and that “problems that have been solved elsewhere can and should be solved here”.

“There remain many challenges facing Mid Yorkshire but these are not insurmountable.

“These will be picked up as part of the wider programme of work we have embarked on to ensure local people can be confident in the services we provide and get the organisation fit for the future,” he said.

“We are determined to take on this challenge and harness the energy of the thousands of people who work in the organisation to ensure that our local communities have access to services that are safe, effective and efficiently managed.”

He said it was planned to re-open the A&E department at Pontefract overnight from September using a team of GPs and experts nurses although critically-injured patients would continue to be treated at Wakefield.

But a longer-term solution was needed for emergency care at its three hospitals in particular Pontefract although the hospital was being used for services including 11 extra outpatient clinics which meant up to 150 extra people were being treated there each week. Better use was also being made of operating theatres and it was planned to make it a centre for cataract and glaucoma services

Mr Eames added: “I hope that the recent changes we have made and our plans to reopen the A&E department within the next five months show our commitment to not only maintaining local services at Pontefract but developing them to make sure it remains the vibrant local hospital that local people have told us they want – and that they need and deserve.”