Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust hospitals in Wakefield, Pontefract and Dewsbury gain 'teaching hospital' status

The trust will now be called Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust.

The teaching status is a new partnership with each of the trust’s three hospitals in Pontefract, Wakefield and Dewsbury with the University of Leeds.

It will enable the trust to enhance its education and training capacity, grow research capability and provides a platform to enable delivery of new advances in healthcare, innovative discoveries, techniques, and medications.

In addition, it will support the recruitment and retention of first-rate staff across all professions, all of which will ultimately result in better services and outcomes for patients.

Len Richards, chief executive of the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, said: “Achieving the ambition is a credit to our staff and educators who are committed to improving the experience of all our patients by ensuring we have a clinical workforce that is skilled and equipped to work in new ways to support the needs of the population.

“The status also provides huge employment opportunities for those in the local communities who may choose to come and work for us.

"By offering everyone the opportunity to pursue a career that will build their skills it demonstrates our clear commitment to making sure every member of staff can achieve their full potential.”

Based on the partnership with the University of Leeds, the trust set a clear ambition in 2022 when it announced it had submitted an application to’ seek a change of establishment order’.

This highlighted health chiefs’ confidence in meeting the teaching principles set out by the university, based on the teaching principles of the University Hospitals Association.

For the last 15 years, the Mid Yorkshire Trust has hosted medical students, nurses, midwives and other health care professionals from the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford and Huddersfield, amongst others.

Mr Richards added: “Becoming a teaching trust is a stepping stone on our wider ambition to achieve university status, it is something I’m very confident we will achieve.

"It validates the service and experiences we provide and recognises the longstanding and successful relationship we have with learners and local education establishments such as the University of Leeds whose support continues to be instrumental.

"We now have a huge platform to contribute further to teaching across West Yorkshire.”

Dr Alan Mighell, Dean of the School of Dentistry at the University of Leeds and non-executive Director at the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, added: “At the University of Leeds, strategic partnerships and collaboration are at the heart of all that we do.

"We were pleased to sponsor the trust’s application for teaching status and are pleased about the positive outcome of the application. This development will also support our mission to provide our students with the best possible educational experience.

“We have been incredibly impressed by the enthusiasm and spirit in which the Trust has approached the partnership and we look forward to working together for many years to come, developing our joint education, research and innovation plans.”