Dewsbury and District Hospital inspected by health watchdog

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) had issued a formal warning to the hospital last summer for failing to treat patients with respect and involve them in their care.

It found elderly patients on Ward Two had long waits before being helped to the toilet, bed bells went unanswered for long periods of time, and staff were under too much pressure.

But inspectors saw people being treated with respect and dignity, all bells answered within two minutes, and a good rapport between staff and patients when they returned in November.

The CQC found the hospital, run by the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust, now met all of its care standards.

Mid Yorkshire’s director of quality, Kate Harper, said: “The good news is that the warning notice that had been applied to Dewsbury has now been lifted.

“We are very pleased with the results. The report is complimentary about the service we provide in many areas and includes a lot of really positive feedback from our patients. This reflects the improvements we have made and the hard work of our staff.”

The CQC report, published this week, said it had received complaints about poor discharge planning, poor care delivery and hygiene since the summer so those areas were looked at particularly closely.

“Overall we found improvements had been made and we found that people’s privacy and dignity had been respected,” it said. “In general, patients were very satisfied with the care and treatment they had received and were very complementary about the attention and attitude of staff towards them.

“We spoke with a number of staff and they too were, in the main, positive about working for the Trust and talked about recent improvements, particularly the systems in place to ensure there were enough staff on duty.”

Inspectors visited Ward Two, a neurological rehabilitation ward, the maternity unit, the discharge lounge and the short stay unit.