News

Please don’t visit relatives or friends in hospital – or use hospital emergency departments – if you have flu-like symptoms.

That’s the message from infection control experts at the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire as this season’s flu-bug starts to impact NHS services.

Emergency departments at Kettering and Northampton general hospitals are always open for people who have serious and life-threatening conditions, but flu is not usually one of them.

A volunteer who provides holistic therapies for people using the Macmillan Cancer Information and Support Centre at Kettering General Hospital has done well in a national award.

Joanne Smeathers is runner up in the national Macmillan Cancer Support’s ‘Thanks to You Awards 2025’ in the With Heart Award category.

Kettering General Hospital has started work on a £713,000 project to fit 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.

Kettering General Hospital has today (Thursday, November 20) launched a new volunteer-led service that allows families and friends to send personalised messages to patients online – which are then delivered in person on a greeting card by hospital volunteers.

The initiative, designed to support patients who may feel lonely or anxious, enables messages of many kinds to be composed online and delivered for free directly to the patient’s ward on a card which they can choose.

An enhanced recovery programme for colorectal patients at Kettering General Hospital is helping people to get safely home after surgery sooner than ever before.

  And its shorter length-of-stays, and less patients needing intensive care treatments afterwards, mean its results are some of the best in the country.

The cardiac MRI team at Kettering General Hospital have won two national awards for the way they work together to provide good patient care.

They have won the Society of Radiographers’ Midlands Radiology Team of the Year 2025 and the Patient’s Choice Award for Exceptional Care 2025.

The national Radiography Awards celebrate the stand-out individuals and teams from across the UK who have made a positive difference to patient care, service delivery, or those who have excelled academically. Winners announced in Radiography Awards 2025! | SoR

Our amazing Macmillan Cancer Support Centre has organised an online cancer information event for people with questions about living with cancer.

The event is on Wednesday, November 12, from 6.30pm to 8pm and anyone can take part  by registering for the event on 01536 493888 or email   kgh-tr.cancerinfo@nhs.net to get a Teams link

Researchers at Kettering General Hospital are investigating if people with bone fractures have a greater risk of coeliac disease.

The aim is to find out if patients who have broken a bone should be tested for coeliac disease enabling them to be diagnosed early before complications of the disease worsen.

The University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN), which is made up of both Northampton General and Kettering General Hospitals, along with Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation NHS Trust (NHFT), are running a free event to show what support is available for the armed forces community within Northamptonshire.