Debate in parliament over safety at Dewsbury and District Hospital

Dewsbury MP Paula Sherriff, who secured the adjournment debate on Monday, said she had received some alarming complaints from her constituents about care at the hospital.

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust has also agreed to hold a public meeting about a planned downgrade of the hospital’s A&E Department after a meeting with Ms Sherriff and Jo Cox, the Batley and Spen MP.

Both MPs have written to health secretary Jeremy Hunt to raise safety concerns after a meeting with Martin Barkley, Mid Yorkshire’s interim chief executive.

Ms Sherriff said: “Our concerns stem from the information that we, as MPs, receive from patients with complaints, anecdotal information, internal whistle blowers and formal accounts.

“These suggest to us that there are some serious problems both within and affecting the trust. It is imperative we get to the bottom of them.”

Mrs Cox said: “We continue to have serious concerns about the way the trust is running our hospital.”

A date is yet to be set for the public meeting, when a shake-up of services which will see emergencies taken to a centralised A&E at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield will be discussed.

The trust wants to downgrade Dewsbury’s A&E to an urgent care centre treating less serious ailments in September - six months earlier than planned.

Dewsbury is also losing its consultant-led maternity unit. The town will be served by a midwife-led birth unit as births needing a consultant present are taken to Pinderfields.

Mrs Cox said: “Although the changes being made at Dewsbury, and to the trust as a whole, are very well advanced at this stage we both remain very concerned about the lack of information the public have about them.”

Kirklees could be left with no full A&E department if similar centralisation plans go ahead in Calderdale and Huddersfield.

NHS bosses want to centralise A&E care for the two towns in Halifax under plans to replace Huddersfield Royal Infirmary with a smaller hospital.

Ms Sherriff added: “Our constituents remain extremely worried about the proposed loss of services at our hospital (Dewsbury).

“We will continue to hold the trust to account and fight for the best deal for local people.”