Living and Working in Yorkshire
Mid Yorkshire
The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust covers the towns of Dewsbury, Pontefract and Wakefield where the main hospitals are located. It is close to Leeds with good road links due to the network of motorways running through our area. The West Riding GP Programme has hospital posts in all of the sites of the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust - Dewsbury, Wakefield and Pontefract.
The Hospitals
The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust was formed on April 1st 2002. The merger brought together the former Pinderfields and Pontefract Hospitals NHS Trust and Dewsbury Health Care NHS Trust. The Trust is about to enter a new era with circa £240 million PFI developments at Pinderfields and Pontefract - complementing the already award-winning facilities at Dewsbury.
Dewsbury and District Hospital
The hospital offers a comprehensive range of medical, rehabilitation and surgical specialties and the facilities and environment are of a high standard. Approximately 1700 staff are employed on the Dewsbury site, offering a wide range of high quality services, primarily to the residents of North Kirklees, a population of 176,000. Our population is diverse, with approximately 11% coming from ethnic minority groups. A significant amount of investment has recently been put into further development of services at Dewsbury.Medicine and Elderly Medicine are integrated. The Medical Directorate has eight wards and a total of (211 beds) including acute elderly, admissions, various medical subspecialties, rehabilitation & palliative care.
Pinderfields General Hospital and Wakefield Hospice
Pinderfields General Hospital is a 500 bedded District General Hospital based on the western side of The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust patch. The hospital offers a comprehensive range of medical, rehabilitation and surgical specialties to the residents of Wakefield Metropolitan District and neighbouring communities. Some specialised services, particularly Burns and Spinal Injuries are provided as regional specialties. As part of the interim service changes which will need to happen for the Hospital Development to progress, Pinderfields Hospital will see major changes. A modular Outpatients Unit opened in January 2003 providing a high standard of accommodation. It replaces the old facilities previous provided on Princess Mary Wing for surgery and medicine and also incorporates outpatient services for women’s health. Recent innovative changes have been a state of the art gastroenterology unit and the introduction of a new model of care for older patients resulting in dramatically reduced hospital admissions.
Juniors enjoy working at Pinderfields, each having an educational supervisor who offers support along with other senior staff including the Royal College Tutor. Teaching is very high on the list of priorities, with medical and dental students in regular attendance, and there are daily educational events such as Grand rounds and Journal club. Audit meetings are held monthly and each junior is encouraged to complete an audit.
The postgraduate department is very active providing induction for all medical staff and an environment that encourages learning (eg bleep free educational meetings). 24 hour library access is made available to all. The hospital has an excellent record with exams particularly PACES (being an examination centre). There are excellent library facilities, with large numbers of computer points and networked printers are available. Library induction programmes are offered to new members of staff upon request and training is available on how to conduct literature searches using electronic databases.
Pontefract General Infirmary
Pontefract General Infirmary is a District General Hospital based on the eastern side of The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust patch. The hospital traditionally serves Pontefract and Castleford along with several small towns, totalling a catchment population of approximately 183,000. The hospital, with just under 400 beds, provides a good range of general medical and surgical specialties, including the provision of maternity services for both Pontefract and Wakefield. A new Ante-Natal Day Unit is now up and running and provides an excellent service to women with complications of pregnancy in a modern and well-equipped unit. The hospital is part of the Hospitals Developments Project, which will bring major redevelopment of the Pontefract site including new ACAD facilities, the development of a rehabilitation institute and 24-hour A&E provision. There are currently 211 acute medical beds at Pontefract General Infirmary. These include a Coronary Care Unit with five monitored beds and a 27 bed Medical Admissions Unit.
The medical education centre offers a comprehensive range of Postgraduate and undergraduate training services. Core curriculum lectures are held most Thursdays. MDT meetings are held on a regular basis in Lung; Respiratory/Pathology, dermatology/Histopathology. MRCP and MRCGP Tutorials are held weekly. The Integrated Medicine team meet on Monday lunchtime. Medical Audits are held monthly. Occasionally these are conducted Trust wide via video conference links. CMT trainees are expected to participate in any research & audit projects being undertaken by the Consultants. Junior and Senior staff collaborate in presentation and discussion at a monthly half day audit meeting. X-ray meetings are held on Friday lunchtime. There is an opportunity for the CMT trainees to take part in the management process by acting as the junior representative on the management team. Regular appraisal and career guidance is considered an integral part of the training. An appointee’s consultant carries out the appraisal, taking also the role of educational supervisor. Counselling is offered by two of the consultants if any points raised by the appraisal require further discussion. In addition a mentoring opportunity is offered to all junior staff in the hospital.