Watchdog demands changes at hospitals

A health watchdog has ordered improvements at three West Yorkshire hospitals after a critical inspection report.
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Experts were so concerned about staff shortages on a ward at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield when they visited this summer that they immediately raised their concerns.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has now published its full report, rating Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust – which runs hospitals in Wakefield, Dewsbury and Pontefract – as “requiring improvement”.

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It said safety was inadequate, and improvement was needed in the categories of effectiveness, responsiveness and being well-led. Care was rated as “good”.

The CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, Prof Sir Mike Richards, said: “We saw staff treating patients in a compassionate and sensitive way, and patients and relatives were generally content with the care they received.

“However, I am very concerned that staff shortages in the trust’s acute hospitals are impacting on the safety and quality of patient care. The backlog of outpatient appointments is also a matter of significant concern, as is the length of time patients were waiting in accident and emergency to be handed over from the ambulance staff.”

Stephen Eames, chief executive of Mid Yorkshire Hospitals, said: “We welcome the CQC’s report and we recognise the challenges they have identified. We will be responding positively to those challenges but we are already making good progress on many of the issues identified.”

He said they had invested £1.2m on recruiting more nurses, with 100 extra staff starting since the CQC visits.