Living and Working in Yorkshire
Airedale
Airedale covers a mixed urban and rural area in West and North Yorkshire, including the southern Dales, Bronte country and the towns of Bingley, Earby, Haworth, Ilkley, Keighley, Skipton and Settle. This gives doctors a chance to live and work in an area of outstanding beauty but also to experience both urban and rural settings. There are excellent road and rail links to Leeds and Manchester.
Airedale NHS Trust – Airedale General Hospital
Airedale General Hospital, is a District General Hospital built on a greenfield site and opened in 1970. The Hospital is well maintained and has been substantially upgraded in the past five years. It is situated in the countryside between Skipton and Keighley. It is on good rail and road links to major cities and the Lake District. The main road links are with the M1 at Leeds (25 miles), the M62 at Bradford (15 miles) and the M6 at Preston (25 miles). In addition to Bradford and Leeds there are good shopping centres and cultural facilities at Ilkley (7 miles), Skipton (5 miles) and Harrogate (20 miles).
Residence within ten miles of the Hospital affords a wide choice of pleasant surroundings at Bingley, Keighley, Haworth, Ilkley and Skipton as well as many small country villages. There are comprehensive state education facilities available at Bingley, Keighley, Skipton and Ilkley and independent schools at Giggleswick, Settle, Cross Hills, Bradford, Ilkley and Leeds.
The acute and out patient services include an Accident and Emergency Department, out patient services, critical care areas (Intensive Care, High Dependency and Coronary Care), a modern Operating Suite with seven main theatres, dedicated obstetric and trauma theatres and a satellite treatment suite. Other specialist areas include a special care baby unit and neonatal intensive care, cardiac catheter suite, endoscopy and colposcopy suite, a diabetes centre and a haematology and medical oncology day unit. There are in- patient, day care and private wards. All surgical, obstetric, medical, elderly and orthopaedic wards are on site together with a pre-admission unit. The diagnostic imaging includes state of the art computerised tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound.
Acute and older peoples’ mental health services are provided on site but managed by Bradford District Care Trust. There is a wide range of therapy services including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, dietetics and speech and language therapy, which are provided on an integrated primary and community care basis. Additional services are provided from community hospitals in Skipton, Bingley, Ilkley and Keighley.
In 2003 Airedale General Hospital was named by the Dr Foster Guide as equal top District General Hospital in England. In the 2004 Guide we were named top Hospital in England for patient satisfaction and top in the Northern and Yorkshire Region for the lowest Hospital mortality figures. In 2005 the Trust was commended by Dr Foster as the best smaller hospital of the year.