Government committed to rebuild KGH | Building a better KGH

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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.    

  1. Community Diagnostic Centre

    Community Diagnostic Centres
  2. Energy Centre image

    Energy Centre
  3. Rockingham Wing Button Building a better KGH

    Rockingham Wing Extension
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Government committed to rebuild KGH

The Government’s commitment to a significant rebuild of Kettering General Hospital was reiterated by Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay on May 25 in a special House of Commons debate .
 
The KGH rebuild is part of phase 4 of the New Hospital Programme, the biggest hospital building programme in a generation, which the Government plans to use to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030.
 
Mr Barclay said: “Four more hospitals in cohort 4 remain on track for completion by 2030: Milton Keynes University Hospital, Kettering General Hospital, Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton and Torbay Hospital.”
 
He was then asked a question by Kettering MP Philip Hollobone about the KGH scheme. Mr Hollobone said: “I thank the Secretary of State for his personal interest in and commitment to Kettering General Hospital and his visit to the hospital last July.
 
“Will he confirm that Kettering General Hospital’s place in the new hospital programme continues to be secured with a fully funded, redeveloped, improved and expanded hospital due on the existing site by 2030, in line with the original timeline?”
 
To which Mr Barclay replied; “As I set out in my statement, the place of Kettering in the new hospital programme is secure. That is in large part a result of my hon. Friend’s campaigning.
 
“He has raised this issue with me on a very regular basis and shown me at first hand the issues at Kettering. He has championed investment in Kettering General Hospital, and today’s announcement is a very positive day for the staff and patients of Kettering.”
 
Kettering General Hospital’s Chief Executive, Deborah Needham, said: “We welcome the update from the Health and Social Care Secretary that the work under the New Hospital Programme at Kettering will soon be underway.
 
“It is an exciting development in the major rebuild of our hospital, which is instrumental in our ability to continue to provide the best care possible to our patients.”

Enabling works coming soon

In November 2022 we announced we had received written confirmation from the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England that we can begin to access £38m of capital from an initial funding allocation of £46m announced in October 2019.
 
Urgent Care Hub aspect in future rebuild May 23
This will mean we can start to prepare parts of its site for the major rebuild itself, which, subject to business case approvals and funding, could begin in 2025.
 
The hospital had its outline business case for the Energy Centre approved by Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England’s Joint Investment Committee. Subject to further approvals work could start in December 2023 and be completed by December 2024.
 
In addition, it has had its £4.14m case for electrical infrastructure approved by the New Hospital Programme Investment Committee with work due to start in 2023 to be completed by the end of the year.
 
These enabling works are vital to a future rebuild. The hospital is currently running its heating and hot water from a 10-year-old temporary boiler plant and steam network system, which has regular maintenance issues.
 
In addition, most of the hospital’s high voltage electrical infrastructure is more than 50 years old and its main power supply has reached its maximum capacity.
 
The new Energy Centre will make a significant contribution towards the Trust’s ambition to achieve net carbon zero status by 2040.The new facility will deliver 40% of the target reduction in carbon emissions and use less fossil fuel.
 
Then we would progress to Phase 1 of the rebuild. Timings for this are not yet available and subject to business case approval. But in this phase we plan to create the new Urgent Care Hub with new A&E departments for children and adults, new assessment areas and six new wards.
 
In Phase 2 we would move into the Urgent Care Hub and demolish the old A&E department and some of our other older buildings to create a new front entrance to the hospital complete with new imaging, wards and operating theatres.

Posted on at by David Tomney

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