KGH gets go ahead to prepare for rebuild | 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.    

KGH gets go ahead to prepare for rebuild

KGH rebuild
Kettering General Hospital has received the go-ahead to start enabling works to prepare for its multi-million pound rebuild.
 
The hospital has received written confirmation from the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England that it can begin to access £38m of capital from an initial funding allocation of £46m announced in October 2019.
 
This will mean the hospital 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.
 
Our Director of Strategy Polly Grimmett, who is overseeing the hospital’s plans, said: “It is great news that we now have the official go-ahead to start enabling works which will pave the way for our hospital rebuild.
 
"One of the first things we will do is start work to prepare our site for a new energy centre and for new electrical infrastructure.
 
“This is a vital foundation for the rebuild and will help to reduce some of the considerable risks we face on a daily basis working with old facilities on a large and extremely busy hospital site.”
 

Who said yes?

The hospital has 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 Spring 2023 to be completed by the end of the year.
 
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.
 
New Energy Centre Artist Impression 2The 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.
 
Hospital Chief Executive Deborah Needham said: “It is great news that our plans for a major rebuild of Kettering General Hospital have taken a step forward.
 
“There is an urgent need to make our hospital suitable for the future needs of our rapidly growing local population – one of the fastest growing in England.”
 

Secretary of State and local MP support

Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: “As part of our New Hospital Programme, patients and staff in Kettering will benefit from new state of the art facilities to improve care and speed up diagnosis.
 
“I am pleased the Trust can drive forward with these essential early building works, including upgrading 50-year-old electrical infrastructure, which we discussed during my visit in August.
 
“This is an important next step, helping to build a stronger, healthier future for our health and care services to give people the security of knowing services will be there for them when they need it.” 
 
Kettering MP Philip Hollobone, who has been actively campaigning for improved facilities at the hospital, said: “Today (Tuesday, November 29)  is a really important day for Kettering, with the long awaited and much campaigned for, official Government go ahead for the start of the redevelopment works at KGH.
 
“KGH is a much-loved local hospital which has been serving the local community with pride on the same site for 125 years. This is the start of the biggest ever investment in our local NHS and will provide local residents with the expanded hospital we need for the years ahead.”
 
New Hospital Programme Senior Responsible Owner Natalie Forrest also welcomed the milestone saying: “These enabling works are the first important step in transforming patient care and delivering a new hospital for the people of Kettering.
 
“We have worked closely with teams from the Trust to find the best solutions, renewing much-needed infrastructure, which will prepare the way for a modern, more effective and efficient building.”
 
The hospital serves the population of Northamptonshire and south Leicestershire, which has already grown by double the national average over recent years.
 
The latest Office for National Statistics data estimates above-average percentage population growth of up to 40% over the next 30 years.
 
The hospital expects a 21% increase in the number of over-80s in the local area in the next five years. The local area has committed to at least 35,000 new houses over the next 10 years, and the local population is set to rise by some 84,000 to 400,000 people.

 

We have placed cookies on your computer to help make this website better. You can at any time read our  cookie policy. Otherwise, we will assume that you're OK to continue.

Please choose a setting: