The original hospital in
Pontefract was the Pontefract Dispensary which was established in Sessions House Yard in 1812. The foundation stone for a new hospital in Southgate was laid by
Hugh Childers,
Secretary of State for War on 7 May 1880; it was opened by John Rhodes, the Mayor of Wakefield, on 8 December 1880. and built by
Balfour Beatty at a cost of circa £150 million, was completed in January 2010. It was opened by the
Duke of Gloucester in July 2010. In March 2018 it was announced that the Accident and Emergency Department at Pontefract Hospital would be reclassified as a 24-hour
Urgent Treatment Centre from the following months with people with life-threatening injuries being sent to the nearest A&E department which is at,
Pinderfields Hospital instead. The local MP,
Yvette Cooper, responded to the action: In October 2019, Mid Yorkshire Trust announced that the maternity-led birth centre would be shut until October 2020 "on the grounds of safety" due to a national shortage of midwives. It also announced that it would be closing 12 of the 42 beds at the hospital's
stroke and rehabilitation unit. Local
MP Yvette Cooper has led a campaign against the action, calling it "an absolute disgrace". ==References==