News

Kettering General Hospital has worked with a local family to launch a new Parents Journal to support the families of children who need hospital care. 

The journal will be owned by families and help them to keep their own record of the care of their loved one and to note down important information they can discuss with staff. 

The idea for the journal came from the family of Jorgie Stanton-Watts, from Corby, who tragically died in October 2016 after spending six days on Skylark Ward at the hospital. 

 

Jorgie, aged 23 months, had a medical condition which meant she had needed hospital care many times during her life.

 

Investigations into her death showed that there were some elements of basic medical care were not provided by Kettering General Hospital. She went into crisis on October 6 and sadly rapidly deteriorated and died at Leicester Royal Infirmary on October 8.

 

The hospital has made many changes to its processes to prevent such mistakes happening again. It has also worked with Jorgie’s family to do something positive to further improve understanding between families and hospital staff.

 

Jorgie’s mother, Nicola Stanton, father, Stephen Watts, and grandmother, Zena Stanton, have all been involved in developing the Parents Journal.

 

The family said: “When Jorgie died we wanted something positive out of our sorrow.

 

“We came up with idea of the Parents Journal because we felt that this is something which would have helped us.

 

“The idea of the journal is it helps parents to keep a note of all the important advice they receive, a record of key decisions, medication changes and test results, so that they feel they are up-to-date on everything that is being done to support their child.

 

“It also enables them to note down, and then later reflect on, what is happening and may prompt questions to ask, to help them to get a better understanding of their child’s treatment.

 

“It is very stressful when parents have a child in hospital, and they may have to juggle many different things in the rest of their life. Having the Parents Journal will help them to feel in more control of the care of their child at what can be a very worrying time for them.”

 

The launch today (17 December 2021) includes the launch of video to be used in staff training which features Nicola, Stephen and Zena. https://youtu.be/dSZVWE-PWpg

 

Kettering General Hospital’s Head of Patient Experience, James Gillespie-Allan said: “A Parents Journal will be offered to every family who attends our Paediatric Assessment Unit,  Paediatric Emergency Department, or is admitted to Skylark Ward, our children’s ward.

 

“By writing things down it will help parents to better understand the care that is planned for their child, help them to remember important things, and help them to speak to staff with confidence.

 

“We believe it will help both parents, and our own staff, to work together in the best interests of the children in our care.”

 

Kettering General Hospital’s Chief Executive Debbie Needham said: “As a Trust we are committed to doing everything we can to improve the way we deliver care to patients and support their families.

 

“Jorgie’s family have made a very important contribution to future care for children by developing the Parents Journal and I would like to thank them for that.

 

“We will work with our staff to introduce the Journal and we are confident it will help to support parents at what can be a very challenging time in their lives.”