KGH to receive £713,000 to install solar panels | 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 to receive £713,000 to install solar panels

Solar panel examples at NGH

Kettering General Hospital has been awarded £713,000 to fit more than 1,000 rooftop solar panels to help it to reduce yearly energy bills by around £150,000.

It is part of a package of £100 million national package of funding from the new publicly owned energy company Great British Energy to enable the NHS to install solar power and battery storage solutions to help drive down energy bills, offering better value for the taxpayer.

The additional solar panels are separate to the hospital’s planned new £57m Energy Centre, on which some enabling work started this month, but will add to the hospital’s overall energy sustainability.

It is also separate to the planned major rebuild of the hospital due to begin in Northamptonshire between 2032 and 2034 according to Government announcements in January.

Kettering General Hospital’s Director of Estates and Facilities, Rob Drabble, said: “This is fantastic news for the hospital and will come in addition to our £57m Energy Centre – due to be built by 2027.

“It will mean we have solar panel arrays installed on five of our roof spaces, and this will offer projected savings of up to £150,000 per year (a total of c£3m over the lifetime of the panels).

“We are delighted that our bid for additional solar panels has been agreed as part of national plans to enable more energy efficiency in the NHS.”

The panels will go on hospital roof spaces not due to be redeveloped as part of the hospital rebuild so will be places like the roof of the Treatment Centre, Education Centre and Cardiac Centre.

NHS England invited trusts to submit expressions of interest for funding solar PV (photovoltaic) projects deliverable within the 2025/26 financial year. A prioritisation process ensured funding was allocated to projects with high delivery confidence, economic and environmental impact.  

Nationally the solar panels programme is expected to deliver savings of around £8.6 million a year, and up to £260 million over the panel’s lifetime across the NHS.

Chief Sustainability Officer at NHS England, Chris Gormley said: “Thanks to the dedication of teams nationwide, the NHS has already implemented hundreds of projects that enhance energy efficiency and drive significant cost savings.

“This groundbreaking new investment, across 78 NHS Trusts on around 200 sites, will expand solar power generation within the NHS by over 300%, slashing energy costs by hundreds of millions of pounds. These vital savings can be reinvested directly into frontline care, ensuring the NHS continues to deliver for our patients and communities.”

 

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