News

Month

Date

News

• KGH’s £30m new Foundation Wing is now open for business

• The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an inspection at Kettering General Hospital on March 7,8,11, 2013, as part of its duty as a regulator to inspect some of the 16 essential standards of quality and safety that NHS Trusts are required to maintain. Not all standards are inspected during each visit.

• Kettering General Hospital’s £30m new Foundation Wing is set to open to its first patients on April 20
• The state-of-the-art development includes a new 16-bed new Intensive Care Unit, 32-bed children’s ward (with high dependency unit, an adolescent area and paediatric assessment unit), children’s outpatients department and a 28-bed cardiac ward and coronary care unit

• KGH has received a positive report in the 2012 National Inpatient Survey released by the Care Quality Commission today.
• The Trust scored ‘about the same’ in 54 questions, ‘better’ than other Trusts in three questions and ‘worse’ than other Trusts in three questions.

• KGH is asking patients to be aware that there could be short delays in checking in for appointments over the next couple of weeks due to a changeover to a new computer administration system

• Kettering General Hospital is now giving a key cancer drug to urology patients within minutes of their bladder cancer surgery being completed.

• The urology and pharmacy team have worked together to offer the service, which has been proven to be the best way of preventing tumours re-occurring.

• The Lead Consultant for Organ Donation at Kettering General Hospital, Dr Jan Szafranski, is urging local people to show they ‘have a heart on Valentine’s Day’ by signing up to the National Organ Donor Register!

• Last week’s surge in A&E attendances at Kettering General Hospital declined over the weekend enabling the hospital to recover from a period of extreme pressure on its bed capacity.

• But the hospital’s bed situation remains tight today (Monday, February 11) and the public are asked to continue to use A&E services wisely.

• KGH is urging local people to avoid coming to the hospital over this weekend (February 9-10) unless it is a real emergency

February

• KGH is urging local people not to come to the hospital over the next 48 hours unless their condition is an accident, emergency or life threatening.

• The Boards of Northampton General Hospital and Kettering General Hospital have agreed that both hospitals should look at ways in which they can work more closely together to ensure high quality patient services are provided to people living in the county.

• A&E doesn’t stand for ‘anything and everything’! That's the message from A&E staff at Kettering General Hospital during a county Choose Well campaign designed to help local people make the right choice when using local health services

• Staff at Kettering General Hospital are asking people not to come to hospital if they have diarrhoea and vomiting or ‘flu like’ symptoms

• KGH has scored above average for the care it provides in the 2012 Accident and Emergency Survey published by the Care Quality Commission today

• KGH has received a positive overall report on some of its key services following a routine inspection check by the Care Quality Commission.

• Twenty eight individual staff and teams at Kettering General Hospital have been nominated as NHS Heroes as part of a national celebration.

• Hospital to agree recovery plan with Monitor over performance breaches

• KGHs colorectal department is expanding the range of complex operations it can perform using laparoscopic ‘keyhole’ surgery techniques.

• One patient to benefit from the expansion is grandfather Brian Bentham, 64,from Hargrave, East Northants, who had two cancers removed using the keyhole technique in one 13-hour operation.

• KGH is appealing for people from all walks of life – and of all ages over 16 – to consider standing for election as a hospital Governor

• An annual skin cancer surveillance day is being held at Kettering General Hospital on Saturday, October 6, at the Rheumatology Department (near the Prince William Post Graduate Centre) from 10am-12 noon
• The free event is for anyone who has any concerns about a mole or skin lesion and last year it was attended by 250 local people
• Val Panter, 53, from Rothwell - who had a skin cancer removed following last year’s event – is urging anyone who has concerns about particular moles or skin lesions to attend the event - which doctors and nurses volunteer their time to put on.

• KGH patient Chloe Jones, seven, from Broughton, has won a national Play in Hospital Week art competition judged by TV comedian Harry Hill

• KGH has today (Tuesday, August 21) taken delivery of a new CT scanner which will help the hospital to reduce waiting times for patients.

• An A&E consultant at KGH has written a book – currently doing well on Amazon – about the highs and lows of a volunteer air ambulance emergency doctor
• Dr Tony Bleetman, the Clinical Director for Urgent Care at KGH, has spent 10 years of his 16 year career in A&E medicine working in his own time saving lives with various air ambulance services – including the  Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance

• KGH has opened a third catheter laboratory inside its state-of-art the Cardiac Centre to further improve life saving services for local people.

• The move will enable the hospital to speed up treatment processes to benefit both emergency and routine patients as part of the hospital’s role as lead organisation in Northamptonshire for emergency cardiac interventions

• Staff at KGH have won a prestigious award for developing a hi-tech way of monitoring infection control issues and improving patient safety.

• KGH is above average on patient satisfaction according to a new regional ‘Family and Friends’ test launched this week

• The handover of the new Foundation Wing building, expected on July 4^th, has been delayed due to internal flooding during the Jubilee weekend.

• Local charities have donated more than £13,000 to refurbish the maternity bereavement room at Kettering General Hospital.
• The money has been donated to the hospital by the Northamptonshire branch of SANDS (the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Charity) and the League of Friends of Kettering and District Hospitals.

• Local people can attend a special free Kettering General Hospital Elderly Medicine Seminar on Thursday, May 17.

• A special results clinic for cancer patients at KGH is being held up as an area of national ‘good practice’ following a National Peer Review.

• KGH is hosting its 24th Pregnancy and Baby Road Show on Wednesday, April 25, providing huge amounts of useful advice in a one-stop shop open evening for parents-to-be and new parents

• KGH is looking to recruit two new Associate Non-Executive Directors to serve on its Board of Directors.

• A Wellingborough teenager has won a competition to name the children’s unit inside Kettering General Hospital’s £30m new Wing.

• Nicole Bird, 14,a pupil at Wrenn School, entered the naming competition - held in conjunction with the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph - in December 2011
  

• The children’s unit will be called Skylark Ward and Nicole will get the chance to open the ward at the official opening of the completed £30m development, planned for September.

• Kettering General Hospital has been granted Affiliated Teaching Hospital status by University of Leicester Medical School for its consistently high standard of education for medical students.

• A project worker who has learning disabilities is helping staff at Kettering General Hospital to better understand the needs of people with this disability

• Kettering General Hospital has introduced a laparoscopic keyhole surgery technique to remove kidneys which are cancerous or are not functioning.

• A Kettering man who has devoted 30 years of his life to supporting hospital radio is being presented with a certificate to thank him for his long service and continued support

• KGH has introduced a new Assessment Unit to improve care for women with urgent gynaecological or early pregnancy problems

• The Director of the area’s bowel cancer screening programme is urging local people to be more aware of the symptoms of Britain’s second biggest cancer killer

• A ward sister from Kettering General Hospital has been invited to be part of the medical team in the 2012 Olympics

• A new Emergency Surgery System has been developed at KGH to help patients to get home as soon as possible after having the right specialist care.

• KGH is piloting a new way of developing ‘real time’ information around patient discharges to improve patient flows through hospital and ensure the best use of hospital beds.

January

2012

• KGH is reassuring patients who have had breast implants at the hospital that they are not the same as the controversial kind originating from France.

• Industrial Action - 30th November

• KGH is piloting a new Chest Pain Assessment Unit to improve care for the 5,000 people each year who come to hospital with chest pain

• KGH has won a national award for its successful staff flu vaccination programme

• It is one of 28 NHS Trusts in the country which have won an NHS Employers’ Flu Fighter Certificate for the way in which it is promoting and delivering this year’s staff flu vaccination programme.

• KGH is introducing a new free text messaging service to its patients as a way of reminding them about their outpatient appointments.

• A doctor from Kettering General Hospital, Dr Suneet Nayee, has won a prestigious patient safety award after presenting an innovative idea in a “Dragon’s Den” style interview in front of a panel of experts.

• Kettering General Hospital is hosting its 23rd Pregnancy and Baby Road Show on Wednesday, September 14, providing huge amounts of useful advice in a one-stop shop open evening for parents-to-be and new parents

• A skin cancer surveillance day is being held at Kettering General Hospital on Saturday, September 17, at the Jubilee Wing (Skin Care Centre) from 10am-2pm
• And Grandfather Andy Purcell, 83, from Desborough - who had a skin cancer removed at last year’s surveillance event – is urging anyone  who has concerns about particular moles or skin lesions to attend the free event

• Cancer patients living in North Northamptonshire – or people who have a family history of cancer – are being asked to consider helping with cancer research
• And KGH patients – who now sit on the Patient and Public Involvement Group of the Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland Cancer Research Network – are stressing why this is so important

• The number of women having water births at Kettering General Hospital has increased four fold since it opened a £78,000 state-of-the-art suite one year ago.

• KGH has introduced a new practical advice service for all new mums and dads to help them feel more confident about caring for their baby at home
• The service is called the “11 O’Clock Stop” (it is run at 11 o clock every day) and each “Stop” lasts an hour and provides current information and safety advice on a range of topics which all parents need

• KGH has just recruited its 5,000th Foundation Trust Public Member.

• Mr John Taylor, 48,  of Burton Latimer, joins the growing number of local people who have shown their support for the hospital by becoming a Public Member of the Foundation Trust

• Health Protection Agency statistics published this month show that Kettering General Hospital has had no cases of MRSA bacteraemia for the last year.

• It is one of only 25 Trusts to have achieved this in the NHS.

• KGH has decided not to proceed with a proposal to deduct pay from all of its staff following the results of a staff survey released today (Wednesday July 5)
• All staff at the hospital had been ask to consider the option of accepting a deduction equivalent to half a day per month to help the hospital achieve essential savings of £12m-£15m this year, reducing the need for redundancies
• The survey’s results have shown that the majority of staff who took part in the survey wanted the Trust to pursue other ways of making the savings (520 returns) compared to the pay option (277 returns)
• This – combined with the fact that only 26%of the hospital’s 3,312 staff took part in the survey – has led to the Trust withdrawing the proposal. The regional heads of the Royal College of Nursing and Unison had formally advised their members not to take part in the engagement exercise
• Instead the Trust will need to find other ways of saving the £2.7m per annum the idea would have generated.

• KGH has announced the appointment of its new Chief Executive, Lorene Read
• Lorene is currently Chief Executive of Weston Area Health NHS Trust. She will take up her post at KGH on September 1

• A bus staffed by cancer specialists is visiting Kettering, Wellingborough and Corby next week to give people help and advice on anything to do with cancer.

• KGH has just launched a new clinic for the diagnosis and treatment of kidney disease in children.

• The move will reduce the need for parents and their children to travel to specialist centres in places like Nottingham and London

• KGH is training its neonatal staff in life saving emergency care using a £15,000 ‘robot’ baby.
• The High Fidelity Simulator is a highly sophisticated baby manikin that looks like a baby, breathes like a baby, moves its arms and legs,  and can even turn blue, hiccup and simulate a baby suffering from life threatening medical conditions

• KGH has received the Northamptonshire Heartbeat Gold Award from Kettering Borough Council for its staff, patient and visitors’ restaurant, kitchens and coffee shop for the third year running
• The award means that the hospital has good standards of hygiene and provides healthy food choices to patients, visitors and staff

• KGH is planning a celebration for this year National Nurses Day on 12th May by presenting hundreds of its hard working staff with baskets of fruit and thank you cards.

• KGH is urging women in the Corby area to attend their routine breast screening appointment as part of the national breast screening programme
• From April 4 KGH’s mobile breast screening unit will move from its current location at Rushden Hospital to the Nuffield Diagnostic Centre in Cottingham Road, Corby.

• KGH has achieved the first stage of becoming an official Unicef/Baby Friendly accredited hospital for breastfeeding

• A pioneering KGH project which introduced bar coded wrist/ankle band for babies won second place at a major national award last night (Wednesday March 9).

• KGH is hosting its 22nd Pregnancy and Baby Road Show on Wednesday, March 9, providing huge amounts of useful advice in a one-stop shop open evening for parents-to-be and new parents

• Lung cancer nurses and their patients are urging local people to give up smoking in the run-up to No Smoking Day 2011 (Wednesday, March 9)
• It is all part of a county wide NHS campaign designed to encourage people to quit the habit – long proven to be a major health hazard
• KGH Lung Cancer Nurse Specialist Lesley Holland and Lung Cancer Nurse Lynne Parker provide vital care and support for more than 200 lung cancer patients and their families each year

• Louise Bagshaw MP for Corby and East Northants is officially opening Kettering General Hospital’s £78,000 state-of-the-art water birth suite on Friday, March 4.
  

• The suite has already has become so popular that in its first eight months of operation it has been used for birthing by 120 mums – four times as many as used the previous birthing pool in a year

• Safety at Kettering General Hospital is being improved with the introduction of bar-coded wrist bands for all inpatients

• Back in March 2010 KGH was one of the first hospitals in the country to introduce bar-coded wrist/heel bands and heel prick labels for babies
  

• Since then the hospital has been rolling out the wrist band initiative to cover all other areas of inpatient care. At the beginning of this month (February 2011) the Trust completed this initiative – which now means some 2,700 inpatients per month receive the wristbands

• KGH new East Northamptonshire Outpatients Centre is opening to its first patients on Monday, February 7.

• The Centre – to be called the Nene Park Outpatients Clinic –was substantially completed at the end of January with staff moving in and setting up their equipment this week.

• Based in Attley Way, next to Rushden and Diamonds Football Ground, Irthlingborough, the centre will see more than four times as many outpatients appointments as the previous KGH outpatients clinic at the Rushden Memorial Clinic in Hayway, which it will replace.
  

• Lung cancer nurses at Kettering General Hospital are urging local people to give up smoking in the run-up to World Cancer Day (Friday, February 4)
• KGH Lung Cancer Nurse Specialist Lesley Holland, together with Lung Cancer Nurse Lynne Parker, provide vital care and support for more than 200 lung cancer patients and their families each year
• Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world and in the run-up to World Cancer Day Lesley is urging local people to consider giving up smoking rather than run the risk of going on to develop lung cancer

• A bowel cancer screening programme run locally by Kettering General Hospital is set to be expanded
• At the moment local people aged between 60-70 are sent a screening kit in the post which enables them to take part in the national bowel cancer screening programme
• But from April 1 the programme is being extended so that people up to 75 will also be sent the screening kit
• In the run-up to World Cancer Day (Friday, February 4) KGH Consultant gastroenterologist Dr Andrew Dixon - the screening director for the Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland Bowel Cancer Screening Centre - is urging local people to take up an invitation which could save their life

• The development of a new blood testing service to be based at Kettering Borough Council’s Customer Service Centre in Kettering has been completed;

• From January 4, 2011, this will mean some patients who would normally travel to Kettering General Hospital will start to have the option of travelling to Kettering Borough Council’s offices instead if this is more convenient for them. This benefits patients, the hospital and Kettering Borough Council

12th

• KGH is hosting a major Nursing and Midwifery Careers Event on Saturday, October 16, from 10am-3.30pm at the Kettering Conference Centre in Thurston Drive

5th

• The £3.4m revamp of KGH pathology service has just been completed. 

• The redevelopment is a major improvement to the hospital’s diagnostic and testing services which perform more than 7.5 million blood, urine and other diagnostic tests for GPs and hospital staff each year

30th

• KGH is successfully using a new diagnostic technique which involves a person swallowing a tiny pill which contains a video camera.
• The hospital starting using the capsule endoscopy technique in September 2008 and since then has used the treatment 80 times.
• The technique has proven to be a great success and it helps clinicians to see and photograph parts of the bowel which cannot be reached using a traditional endoscopy examination – the images are then used to help treat illnesses such as Crohn’s disease, cancer and bleeding from the small bowel.

17th

• Staff from KGH’s children’s wards are holding a “Well Bear Clinic” as part of national Play in Hospital Week next week (September 20-25)
• The aim is to help children to feel more comfortable about a visit to hospital by asking them to come in for a fun visit and to bring in a teddy bear (or other cuddly toy) for a check up. The actual Clinic is on Saturday, September 25, from 10am-2pm at Timpson Ward at KGH.

6th

• A skin cancer surveillance day is being held at Kettering General Hospital on Saturday, September 18, at the Jubilee Wing (Skin Care Centre) from 10am-2pm
• Anyone who has concerns about particular moles or skin lesions is invited to attend the free event and speak to specialist doctors and nurses on the day (who are volunteering on the day and not being paid)
• The aim of the event is to support people with skin cancer concerns, identify any problem lesions and organise treatment and educate people about safe behaviour in the sun

 1st

• KGH is hosting its 21st Pregnancy and Baby Road Show on Wednesday, September 8, 2010, providing huge amounts of useful advice in a one-stop shop open evening for parents-to-be and new parents

1st

• KGH's £30m new development has now been given the go-ahead by the Government.
• The Trust received the approval last week and has now issued a ‘letter of intent’ to our development partner Interserve to proceed with building the new three-storey block

19th

• A bowel cancer screening programme run by KGH is helping to save lives by treating cancers quickly and by removing pre-cancerous growths.
• The hospital has helped to identify 44 Northamptonshire people with cancers and 395 with other growths at the end of its first ever screening cycle.
• The screening programme – operating for the first time in Northamptonshire, Rutland and Leicestershire - has meant that people like Cecelia Tomlinson, from Burton Latimer, have been diagnosed with cancer at an early stage and been able to be quickly treated for it.

9th

• KGH is urging women in the Rushden area to attend their routine breast screening appointment as part of the national breast screening programme
• 36,000 women in North Northants aged 50-70 are invited for routine breast screening once every three years (and at the moment the screening programme is touring East Northamptonshire)
• About 78% of women do attend their appointment – but KGH is aiming to increase this to more than 80% over the next year

3rd

• KGH has finalised its plans for the first year of a planned three year programme to improve patient safety.
• Patient safety has always been a priority at KGH but the hospital has decided to make it a special focus for the next three years because it believes it is one of the things that patients themselves feel is most important.

30th

• KGH has introduced a new life changing procedure for cardiac patients that involves using a diamond drill to bore through a calcified coronary artery.
• Great grandmother Marie Brown, 84, from Kettering, is one of the first 23 people to have received the operation – usually only done at regional cardiac centres

• KGH has announced the appointment of its new Chief Executive, Derek Bray.
• Derek is currently Chief Executive of NHS Derbyshire County – one of the most successful Primary Care Trusts in England. He will take up his post at KGH in October.
• Dr Mark Newbold, who has been Chief Executive of KGH since September 2007, will take up his new position as Chief Executive of the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust in Birmingham in August. The Heart of England Trust consists of three hospitals and is one of the largest hospital Trusts in the country.

22nd

• Kettering General Hospital has being given scores of good and excellent for various aspects of the way it cares for patients in a survey released today.
• The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) has published its 2010 Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) assessment results on the NPSA website: www.npsa.nhs.uk/peat today

16th

• Kettering General Hospital has completed a major £4.7m refurbishment of its main medical ward blocks – the Harrowdens
• The hospital has just completed the refurbishment of Harrowden C (it had already refurbished Harrowden A (by September 2009) and Harrowden B (by February 2010)

8th

• Patients at Kettering General Hospital are being offered expert lifestyle advice by an NHS health trainer service which has just been expanded to cover the hospital.
• Health trainers are employed by NHS Northamptonshire Provider Services and work with people across the county who want to improve their health by improving their lifestyle

25th

• Two project workers - who both have learning disabilities - are set to work at Kettering General Hospital to help staff better understand the needs of people with this disability
• It is all part of a major improvement programme currently underway at the hospital to help enhance care for people with learning disabilities and ensure that KGH staff get real, relevant and inspiring training in how to make a hospital visit less stressful for them

19th

• KGH has worked with East Midlands Ambulance Service to successfully develop a critical care transfer trolley which enables patients with a serious injury or illness to be transferred to a specialist hospital (or within a hospital itself) more safely
• The trolley - which patients lay on while they are in the ambulance - provides many of the technical support facilities of an intensive care unit and is linked directly to the ambulance’s main power supply

 3rd

• Kettering General Hospital is celebrating the 10^th anniversary of its cancer care unit the Centenary Wing with a party on Friday, June 4, at the Wing from 3pm.
• The unit treated its first patients on June 5, 2000, and since then has provided in excess of 50,000 treatments to patients with cancer or other blood disorders.
• The Centenary Wing was built following a £650,000 community two year fundraising campaign supported by the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph

14th

• A new support group has been created for women who have had – or are considering having – breast reconstruction surgery.
• The group is called the Breast Reconstruction Awareness group (BRA for short) and it is made of about 40 breast care patients who have had breast reconstruction surgery - or are considering having it - after being diagnosed with breast cancer
• The group is having an official launch party at Kettering General Hospital’s Treatment Centre on May 25, 2010.

13th

• Kettering General Hospital has received the Northamptonshire Heartbeat Gold Award from Kettering Borough Council for its staff restaurant, kitchens and café and coffee shops
• The award means that the hospital has good standards of hygiene and provides healthy food choices to patients, visitors and staff

• Kettering General Hospital has successfully introduced a new safety system for the care of babies which uses a bar-coded wrist band and bar-coded heel prick testing label

9th

• 17-year-old Andrew Morgan, from Corby, has become the second person in the world to have a revolutionary new form of pacemaker which allows him to have magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans without fear that the implant will be affected.
• Cardiologists at Kettering General Hospital implanted the new device – the first of its kind in Britain - after Andrew became increasingly ill with problems created by having a slow heartbeat

1st

• KGH has been successfully registered with the new health and social care regulators the Care Quality Commission without any conditions
• This means that the CQC has carefully studied a vast amount of evidence from KGH which proves that the hospital is working across all areas to improve the patient experience

8th

• Kettering General Hospital’s refurbishment of its main medical ward block has reached another landmark
• Work on the area previously occupied by Harrowden B has just been completed and work on the final ward on the floor (Harrowden C) has commenced

4th

• Kettering General Hospital is hosting its 20th Pregnancy and Baby Road Show on Wednesday, March 10, 2010, providing huge amounts of useful advice in a one-stop shop open evening for parents-to-be and new parents

2nd

• Staff from the breast screening office at Kettering General Hospital have raised £6,000 for the Crazy Hats Appeal

12th

• The Kettering General Hospital’s Charity Fund Appeal has reached its target of £100,000 to help improve the services and facilities for heart patients and their families.

4th

• Kettering General Hospital is looking for a local person who has received an organ donation, or who is part of a family which has made a donation, to help run a new local Organ Donation Committee.

2nd

• Kettering General Hospital is lifting the visiting restrictions it imposed following some cases of norovirus at the hospital 10 days ago

• The hospital introduced visiting restrictions on January 25 when there were 18 suspected cases of the illness – also known as winter vomiting disease - in two wards over the weekend of January 23/24

• Both of the wards affected were closed to admissions until patients were all symptom free for two days. The wards were reopened on Friday and today the hospital has decided visiting can return to normal. If in doubt about visiting times people should contact the ward they need to visit for clarification as times vary. Please do not visit hospital if you are feeling unwell or have symptoms of diarrhoea/vomiting

January 2010

25th

• Kettering General Hospital is introducing visiting restrictions for the public today (Monday, January 25) following a number of cases of suspected Norovirus – also known as winter vomiting disease – on its wards
• Two wards have been closed to admissions today following a review over the weekend which has show 18 suspected cases of the illness.
• Norovirus is a common winter illness characterised by people suffering from diarrhoea and/or vomiting, usually for a period of 2-3 days, and is best contained by a mixture of infection control measures, restricting the movement of patients between wards and restricted visiting.

17th

• Kettering General Hospital has extended its work to improve same sex accommodation across the hospital
• In October the Trust announced it had completed the refurbishment of its medical assessment unit to improve same sex accommodation
• Now the hospital is announcing that a further six wards are being reconfigured to improve arrangements for same sex accommodation

14th

• A programme which gives staff the freedom to improve and personalise care at Kettering General Hospital is helping to enhance the patient experience.
• For the last four months the hospital has been actively measuring patient experience on its wards through questionnaires as part of an overall improvement programme called Improving Healthcare Together (IHT).
• The results (for July-October) show that perceptions of care have improved by up to 24% in key categories such as “were you treated well, with kindness and respect”.

8th

• The Crazy Hats Appeal is officially presenting Kettering General Hospital with £14,000 worth of equipment to help improve plastic surgery for people with cancers and lumps which have to be removed.
• The equipment enables the gaps left by surgical incisions to be filled using the patient’s own body fat and will enable a major improvement to the hospital’s plastic surgery capability.

1st

• Kettering General Hospital is today (Tuesday, December 1) releasing more details, and an artist’s impression, of its proposed £30m main ward block extension
• The development will involve improving and relocating its intensive care facilities and children’s wards in a purpose-built unit, and permanently re-providing a medical ward - which is currently in a temporary building
• KGH has applied for planning permission for the development and residents can comment on it via Kettering Borough Council
• It is hoped that work on the project will start in 2010 and be completed in 2012

26th

• Preparatory work on Kettering General Hospital’s new outpatients centre in East Northamptonshire is due to start on November 30
• KGH Chairman, Steve Hone, Chief Executive, Dr Mark Newbold, Mr James Wilson, of Davidsons Developments, and representatives of the local community will mark the start of the work on the new business park and centre which will increase the number of outpatient appointments held within the district each year from 8,000 to 40,000

25th

• Christmas is coming early for the children’s wards at Kettering General Hospital with the donation of toys, games, books and other play resources by the Phoenix Resource Centre of Raunds.

October

28th

• The Trust is currently helping with a national notification exercise to contact patients who have been treated by a healthcare worker who has subsequently been found to have contracted HIV.

15th

• Kettering General Hospital is the first hospital in England to be assessed on the new CNST standards for maternity.
• Kettering General Hospital is the first hospital in England to be successful at achieving level 2 status for maternity.

15th

• Kettering General Hospital has achieved a Good rating for quality of services and an Excellent rating for use of resources in the Care Quality Commission’s Annual Health Check 2009

September

• A skin cancer surveillance day is being held at Kettering General Hospital on Saturday, September 26, at the Jubilee Wing (Skin Care Centre) from 10am-2pm
• Anyone who has concerns about particular moles or skin lesions is invited to attend the free event and speak to specialist doctors and nurses on the day (who are volunteering on the day and not being paid)
• The aim of the event is to support people with skin cancer concerns, identify any problem lesions and organize treatment and educate people about safe behaviour in the sun

• Kettering General Hospital’s Paediatric Department has won a Charter Mark Bronze Award from Northamptonshire County Council for the way in which it involves children and young people in their hospital care
• To win the award the hospital had to demonstrate that it actively involved children and young people in decisions about their care through things like comment cards, treatment plans, talking patients through their care and involving them in departmental improvement plans for the future

11th

• Kettering General Hospital’s infection control team has been shortlisted for a national award for a patient safety initiative which now runs across 20 wards
• The hospital’s pioneering Kettering Infection Predictor (KIP) system (a way of helping to reduce the risk of patients getting infections) is one of six top projects in the UK being considered for the Nursing Times Award 2009 – Infection Control Category

10th

• Kettering General Hospital has passed all 16 measures assessed during an unannounced Hygiene Code inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC)
• The CQC said that after inspecting the Trust it had “no concerns” in any of the areas cleanliness and infection control tested and that the Trust has lower than expected MRSA and C difficile infections for a Trust of its type
• Kettering General Hospital’s Director of Nursing and Quality, Liz Libiszewski, has welcomed the findings which demonstrate the progress and good work the Trust has made in key issues such as cleanliness and infection control

• Kettering General Hospital is starting building work to upgrade and improve its Medical Assessment Unit on Monday, September 14.

• The aim is to substantially improve the privacy and dignity arrangements on this 28-bed short-stay ward - where patients are assessed before being admitted to one of the hospital’s inpatient wards (or being treated and discharged and going home)

• The Trust is funding the improvements using £710,000 it was awarded from the Government’s Privacy and Dignity Fund in May to improve same sex accommodation arrangements.

3rd

• Kettering General Hospital has just completely refurbished and modernised one of its main medical wards
• Harrowden A – which has been closed since March - re-opens for business on Monday (September 7)
• The re-opening marks the completion of the first part of a planned  £4.7m transformation of the whole of the Harrowden floor into two L-shaped state-of-the-art wards by summer of 2010
• This in turn is part of the hospital’s longer term multi-million pound ward refurbishment programme which began in early 2008

2nd

• Kettering General Hospital is launching a comprehensive new programme to improve and personalise the care for every one of the 125,000 patients it sees each year
• The programme is called “Improving Healthcare Together” and follows detailed research into what KGH patients, relatives and visitors think is most important to them

• The Trust is publicly launching the new programme at its first Annual General Meeting as an NHS Foundation Trust on Monday, September 7, at 6pm at the Kettering Conference Centre in Thurston Drive, Kettering (former KLV leisure centre)

28th

• County hospitals are today (Tuesday, July 28) calling on local people with suspected Swine Flu to use NHS services appropriately

• The plea follows known incidents where people have attended hospitalA&E departments while suffering from Swine Flu symptoms – potentially putting other ill patients at risk

14th

• Kettering General Hospital has received the Northamptonshire Heartbeat Gold Award from Kettering Borough Council for its staff restaurant, kitchens and café and coffee shops
• The award means that the hospital has good standards of hygiene and provides healthy food choices to patients, visitors and staff

7th

• The users of a unique community obstetric clinic for mothers-to-be set up by Kettering General Hospital have praised staff involved in providing it

• The service itself has won a ‘highly commended’ award from the national All-Party Parliamentary Group on Maternity Services for its excellent practice – and staff involved will be presented with their award on Thursday (July 9) by Health Minister Ann Keen in the House of Commons

6th

• Kettering General Hospital scores excellent for food, good for privacy and dignity and acceptable for its patient environment in a survey released today (Monday, July 6)
• The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) has published its 2009 Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) assessment results on the NPSA website: www.npsa.nhs.uk/peat today

6th

• Kettering General Hospital’s children’s play team is organising a Sensory Sunday fun day to raise money for a new £15,000 sensory room for children with special needs
• The hospital is urging local people to support the event by donating raffle prizes, having their own stall at it, or simply attending the event which is on August 30 from 11.30am-5.30pm at Kettering Rugby Club in Waverley Road

• East Northamptonshire Council’s development control committee last night (Wednesday, July 1) to approve planning permission for Kettering General Hospital’s proposed new outpatients centre at Irthlingborough

1st

• Kettering General Hospital’s Pocket Park committee is saying a big public thank you to Northamptonshire Community Foundation to mark the end of a series of grant-funded works.
• Its Pocket Park committee is placing a plaque at the top notice board to mark some major improvements it has been able to undertake thanks to a grant of £2,900 from the Grassroots Grants Fund of the Northamptonshire Community Foundation

29th

• The Crazy Hats Appeal has donated an £8,500 microscope and two televisions to Kettering General Hospital’s Treatment Centre to improve both its clinical equipment and patient environment

18th

• Kettering General Hospital has declared full compliance with 23 out of the 24 Care Quality Commission’s Standards for Better Health (Core Healthcare Standards)
• The Trust did not declare full compliance with one standard because a Hygiene Code inspection visit on January 27-28 found that we needed to strengthen the arrangements in place for monitoring our cleaning schedules. This led to a condition being attached to the Trust’s registration with the Care Quality Commission (CQC)
• While prompt work by the Trust meant that condition was lifted by the CQC on May 11 the Trust could not declare itself fully compliant with the standards for the year ending March 31, 2009

• Kettering General becomes the first hospital in the Midlands to join nationwide loyalty card initiative.

• Kettering General Hospital has launched the second part of its multi-million pound ward refurbishment programme
• It has now started work on a £4.7mplan to transform three medical wards (Harrowden A, B and C) into two L-shaped state-of-the-art wards by summer of 2010
• Last year the Trust spent £1.5m and refurbished a former mental health ward area (Addington ward) and created a modern short stay medical ward (now called Clifford ward) in the first stage of its refurbishment programme

5th

• Five students from Tresham Institute start a week long period of work experience at Kettering General Hospital on Monday, June 8
• Each year the Trust helps local students to get a taste of what it is like to work in a hospital environment assisting them in their qualifications and career choices

 5th

• Kettering General Hospital has won a special merit award at this year’s East Midlands Apprenticeship Awards
• The hospital won the award for its commitment to developing its workforce through apprenticeship schemes
• In the last year the hospital has taken on 10 apprentices in areas such as estates, administration, and information technology

• Gardener Ralph Howe is celebrating an amazing 50 years of service to Kettering General Hospital.