Hundreds of items were being sent back to the laundry room at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary every day during 2013/14, official figures have revealed.

A total of 113,000 laundry items at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT) had to be returned as they were insufficiently clean, torn or damaged – roughly 300 per day.

The figures from the Health and Social Care Information Service show the trust spent £842,298 on laundry and linen services in 2013/14.

A total of 2.8m items were laundered during the period.

Associate director of estates and finance David McGarrigan said: “Since the returns were issued we have changed providers and are looking to improve the figures.”

In June this year the Trust closed its in-house laundry facility and out-sourced the work to a private firm.

Hospital chiefs claimed the ageing laundry house at HRI needed a £20m refit.

No jobs were lost but some staff were moved to other roles.

Hospital linen for both HRI and Calderdale Royal is now washed off-site by global services company Berendsen.

The daily laundry run is now taken to the firm’s Leicester facility, more than 100 miles away.

Across England, hospitals, community care providers and ambulance services washed just over half a billion items in 2013/14, costing £177.5m in laundry and linen services, or about 34p per item on average.

Around 0.8% of items had to be sent back to the laundry as unfit for use.

Meanwhile at Yorkshire Ambulance Trust, one in 12 items (8.3%) had to be sent back.

The trust spent £144,443 on laundry and linen services in 2013/14, and laundered 48,142 items during the period, meaning around 4,000 items had to be sent back.

The bill per item laundered for Yorkshire Ambulance Service is one of the most expensive in England, averaging £3 per item.

A spokeswoman for the service explained their arrangements but did not comment on the cost.

She said: “Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust currently has laundry provision provided in two ways. One is a via a contract provider that collects and delivers laundry across 61 sites in Yorkshire and the Humber.

“The other is a ‘swap’ arrangement with all hospitals across the region.”