CQC requires improvement at The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust

4 September 2013

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has told The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trustthat it must make improvements at two of its hospitals to comply with national standards of quality and safety.

This follows inspections at Pinderfields Hospital, Dewsbury and District Hospital, and Pontefract Hospital in May 2013. The reports of all three inspections are published today.

Inspectors found the trust was failing to meet national standards at two of the hospitals visited.

At Pontefract Hospital inspectors found that the trust was meeting all six standards reviewed.

At all three hospitals, the visiting inspection team identified examples of good care being provided to people and several patients gave positive feedback about the care and treatment they received. However, on some of the wards at both Pinderfields Hospital and Dewsbury and District Hospital, inspectors found that patients were not always receiving care and treatment that fully met their needs and that further action was required to address staffing shortages.

Some care plans reviewed by inspectors at both hospitals were of poor quality, contained incomplete information, and were difficult to follow. In addition they did not always offer sufficient guidance to staff as to how best to meet patients’ changing needs.

The visiting inspection team found that trust wide systems were in place to assess and monitor the quality of service being provided and to manage risk. However, at Pinderfields Hospital and Dewsbury and District Hospital these systems were not always robust enough to ensure that all risks were identified, documented and effectively managed.

CQC has told the trust where it must make improvements and has received an action plan from the trust detailing the steps it is taking to ensure it is meeting all national standards. CQC will monitor the implementation of this action plan and inspectors will return in the near future to check that the necessary changes have been made.

Malcolm Bower-Brown, CQC’s Regional Director for the North said:

“The shortfalls at Pinderfields and Dewsbury and District Hospital are a real concern and we have told the trust where immediate improvements need to be made"

“We will continue to monitor the trust closely, to ensure that patients receive the service they are entitled to expect"

Any regulatory decision that CQC takes is open to challenge by a registered person through a variety of internal and external appeal processes.

Ends

For further information please contact the CQC Regional Communications Team, David Fryer 07901 514 220 or Kirstin Hannaford 0191 233 3629.

The CQC press office can be contacted on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07917 232 143.

Notes to editors

Read the full reports from our checks on standards at:

• Pontefract General Infirmary
• Pinderfields General Hospital
• Dewsbury and District Hospital

CQC has issued a warning notice Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust requiring action to meet the following regulation at Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield:

A deadline of 27 August 2013 has been given for improvement. If this deadline is not met, CQC has a range of enforcement powers which include restricting the services that a provider can offer, or, in the most serious cases, suspending or cancelling a service. CQC can also issue financial penalty notices and cautions or prosecute the provider for failing to meet essential standards. Any regulatory decision that CQC takes is open to challenge by a registered person through a variety of internal and external appeal processes.