Calderdale Royal Hospital

Ratings - Outpatients

• Overall

  Good

• Safe

  Good

• Effective

  Good

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Good

• Well-led

  Good

Our view of the service

We assessed the outpatients service as part of a comprehensive trust and well led assessment from 12 January to 5 February 2026. This was in response to concerns raised to us around safe care and treatment.

We spoke to 32 clinical and non-clinical staff of various grades.

The service had addressed some of the concerns from our last inspection in March 2016. For example, leads had mitigations in place to ensure clinics were not overbooked. They had added extra capacity to address long waits or delays, and improve patient satisfaction.

There were no previous breaches.

The outpatients department (OPD) was one of the largest areas in the trust, which saw more than 500,000 yearly attendances across a wide range of specialities.

We rated this service as good because it was safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.

On this assessment we found the following examples of good practice;

• All OPD staff we spoke to enjoyed working for the hospital and felt respected, appreciated and well supported by managers and teams to raise any suggestions or concerns.
• Did not attend (DNA) rates were reported with a health equity lens; rates were compared for patients with a learning disability, by ethnicity and those from the most deprived areas. Staff used the trust’s inequalities flag on their electronic patient records (EPR) system within some services. This aimed to ensure equity across all patient groups.
• Some clinics had reduced RTT times and their waiting lists. For example, endoscopy had digitalised their pre-assessment and dermatology had a digital imaging system.
• We heard examples of how OPD staff and consultants met outpatient’s individual needs including offering emotional support and reducing anxiety.
• Comprehensive chaperone proforma documentation was included as part of EPRs. This meant staff met and documented outpatient’s emotional and supportive needs.

We heard about some encouraging service initiatives and development work to better meet the needs of people with a learning disability (LD

However, we found areas for improvement;

• We found some environmental and equipment issues across clinics. Cardiology had some equipment two to three years overdue for testing. Oxygen cylinders were not stored appropriately or safely. Staff did not always dispose of clinical waste safely. Sterile supplies in gynaecology were potentially at risk of contamination or becoming non-compliant.
• Clinical staff did not meet the 95% target for completing the practical tier 2 Oliver McGowan statutory training in learning disability and autism, with compliance at 42.7%. However, the directorate was on target to achieve compliance over the next 2 years aligned to the organisational trajectory.
• Some nursing staff told us their access to practical statutory training, continuous professional development (CPD) and upskilling was limited by having no spare staff to cover their shifts.
• The service’s clinics did not always run on time and could keep patients waiting. We observed some consultant clinics running late and behind schedule. During our assessment a few OPD clinic waiting times stretched to one or two hours.
• Did not attend (DNA) rates for some clinics were significantly higher than the national and trust average. For example, in ear nose throat (ENT) and audiology. We were unclear if service leads had any work planned to reduce this rate.

Trust and service leads took prompt actions to address all our concerns and issues fed back onsite.

After our completed assessment, we issued the trust the following breach of regulation;

The trust must ensure all outpatient environments, equipment and staff facilities are appropriate for the delivery of safe care.

We rated this service as good because it was safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.

People's experience of this service

We spoke to ten outpatients and their loved ones. Most were very positive, satisfied and complimentary about the service.

Outpatients and their loved ones told us staff respected and upheld their privacy and dignity during their care or treatment. They felt staff took time to interact with patients and those close to them respectfully and responsively. Outpatients also told us staff gave them considerate and compassionate care throughout their procedure.