Health Minister visits KGH and NGH | Building a better KGH

Building a better KGH

We are embarking on an ambitious journey to transform our facilities and services at Kettering General Hospital, ensuring we meet the growing healthcare needs of Northamptonshire for generations to come.  The delays with the New Hospital Programme have meant we have paused some of our enabling works. While we await further details, we remain steadfast in our commitment to progress.

2025 is a big year for our hospital!

Work has started on our new Energy Centre which will be completed by 2027. Driving forward the transformation that our hospital needs along with moving ahead on our plans to address the RAAC concrete in our Women’s and Children's unit with an extension to Rockingham Wing, which will provide a  much better environment for our patients. It will be bright and spacious. This also gives us the opportunity to address the accommodation issues we have had following the discovery of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in 2024.

Community Diagnostic Centres (CDC's)  

Designed to increase the  capacity of diagnostic testing.  Providing community-based access to diagnostic services, leaving hospital site diagnostics additional capacity to manage emergency and non-elective inpatient workload.  

Each Community Diagnostic Centre will be a free standing multi-diagnostic facility, located away from main acute hospital facilities. There is a national target to deliver 44 Community Diagnostic Centre's across England; of which 8 of these will be across the Midlands.  

In Northamptonshire, we are currently working on two new Community Diagnostic Centre's  sites. One in Kings Heath, Northampton that opened to patients in the summer of 2024 and the second in Corby, which is due to open in 2025.

Find out more about the Community Diagnostic Centre's (CDC's)

Energy Centre 

Building has already started on  a state-of-the-art  green Energy Centre  which has been designed to support the hospital's existing infrastructure more efficiently and sustainably, while also accommodating future developments.

Find out more about the Energy Centre

Solar Panels

More than 1,000 rooftop solar PV (photovoltaic) panels will be fitted around the estate. These will be funded as part of a national £100 million package from the new publicly owned energy company Great British Energy. This will help to reduce yearly energy bills by around £150,000 and will add to the hospital’s overall energy sustainability. 

Find out more about the installation of Solar Panels.   

Rockingham Wing Extension

Over the past year we have been dealing with the consequences of discovering RAAC in the roof of Rockingham Wing.  We have had to relocate services from the building and delay plans to upgrade our Special Care Baby Unit and Bereavement Suite.

We have received funding to construct an extension to the building this will help address our accommodation issues.

Find out more about the Rockingham Wing Extension.

Artist impression main entrance approach April 2022

New Hospital Programme 

While we understand the New Hospitals Programme must be affordable, we are disappointed the governments decision on 20 January 2025 to delay the next steps in our development programme until 2029/2030. This delay poses a significant challenge to our plans and the delivery of much-needed improvements for the patients and communities we serve. 

Find out more about the New Hospital Programme

 

Proposed Multi-Storey Car Park

Plans include the development of a seven-storey, 662-space multi-storey car park to replace spaces lost for future redevelopment, ensuring easy and accessible parking for patients, visitors, and staff.    

Health Minister visits KGH and NGH

Health Minister Edward Argar Health Minister Edward Argar with Head of Nursing Medicine Jane Daniel HC Pretty ward KGH 2.JPG

Health Minister Edward Argar visited Kettering and Northampton general hospitals on February 17 to look at the challenges we face in our current hospital estate.

He was invited to visit our hospitals during a Parliamentary debate earlier this month by Kettering MP Philip Hollobone and Northampton South MP Andrew Lewer.

Both of our local MPs are supporting further investment in our two sites to enable us to better support our patients given our rising local population and demand.

The Minister met members of hospital staff and visited parts of both sites, spending time talking to staff to learn more about the current issues they face, and why more investment in our estate is necessary to improve care and the environment for patients and staff.

At KGH he visited the HC Pretty wards, and took a tour to learn about the problems with our old energy and heating infrastructure, and the exciting plans for our proposed new Energy Centre as part of our new hospital development – plans for which are well underway and will be an important part of our journey to Net Zero Carbon.

At NGH he visited the new Paediatric Emergency Department, Critical Care Unit, Paediatric Wards and Neonatal Unit, and saw first-hand the huge difference more modern building design can offer.

The Trust has been working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England and Improvement's New Hospital Programme to progress its early enabling works.

The priority is to get an Energy Centre business case approved, followed at the appropriate time by a business case for new car parking and roadways

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