ENGLAND'S chief inspector of hospitals has asked members of the public to give feedback on the services provided by York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are due to look at the trust's services between March 17 and 20.

The trust will be given an overall rating of outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate, under significant changes which have been introduced by the CQC.

The chief inspector, Professor Sir Mike Richards, announced in late 2013 that he will lead much larger inspection teams, headed up by clinical and other experts including trained members of the public.

Sir Mike said: "We know there is too much variation in quality – these new in-depth inspections will allow us to get a much more detailed picture of care in hospitals than ever before.

"Of course we will be talking to doctors and nurses, hospital managers and patients in the hospital. But it is vital that we also hear the views of the people who have had care at any of the hospitals run by the trust, or anyone else who wants to share information with us.

“This is your opportunity to tell me and my team what you think, and make a difference to NHS services in the local area.”

The inspection team is expected to look in detail at key service areas including A&E, medical care surgery, intensive/critical care, maternity, paediatrics/children’s care, end of life care and outpatients to tell the team about their experiences of care from the past year.

The inspectors will be holding "listening events" in York and Scarborough so people can tell the team about their experiences of care from the past year. People are invited to tell inspectors where they have experienced excellent care and where they would like to see improvements made in the future.

The trust includes York and Scarborough Hospitals as well as Malton, Whitby, Bridlington and the New Selby War Memorial Hospital.

It has been a challenging year for York Hospital, which is has been on red alert as it works to deal with rising levels of more seriously ill patients. A major incident was declared at Scarborough Hospital at the beginning of the year.

An investigation into the trust was opened by Monitor, the Foundation Trust regulator, in August over concerns about emergency care and breast cancer referral times but was closed in October as regulators said they were satisfied improvements had been made.

The York event will be held at 6.30pm on Monday, March 16, at York St John University, Lord Mayor’s Walk.

The Scarborough event will be held at 2pm on Thursday, March 12 at the Palm Court Hotel, Saint Nicholas Cliff.

A full report of the inspectors’ findings will be published by the Care Quality Commission later in the year.

Anyone who is unable to attend the listening event but wishes to give their views to the inspection team can do this by visiting http://cqc.org.uk/syeyork, emailing enquiries@cqc.org.uk, writing to CQC, Citygate, Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4PA, or by calling 03000616161.