News

Staff and visitors cycling to Kettering General Hospital can safely park their bikes and pump up their tyres at new facilities opened today (Wednesday, June 21).

A 10-cycle covered storage area has been installed alongside a public bike pump and repair station near the hospital’s main entrance. 

Following the death of Kettering General Hospital gardener Ralph Howe after 64 years of devoted service we look back at his life and times.

Ralph first started gardening with his father when he was about ten years old in his garden and allotment in Woodford.

Tributes have been made to much-loved Kettering General Hospital gardener, Ralph Howe MBE, who has died in service after being one of the longest serving employees in the NHS.

Mr Howe, aged 81, worked in the hospital’s grounds – come rain or snow - for 64 years after he first joined the gardening team in 1959 aged 17.

He had a stroke on June 8 at his home in Kettering and died later at Northampton General Hospital on the night of June 13.

A bowel cancer screening programme that helps detect cancers and pre-cancerous growths early has now been extended to patients over 55 in Northamptonshire.

The screening expansion is part of national plans to roll out screening in stages to all patients over 50 by 2025. 

From the end of March all individuals over the age of 55 are being invited for screening at Kettering and Northampton general hospitals as part of collaborative work by the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire NHS Group **.

The organ and tissue donation committee at Kettering General Hospital has worked with Tesco to increase awareness of the importance of discussing your donation wishes.

And the result is a colourful 9ftx6ft panel near the entrance to the main Tesco store in Carina Road, Kettering, which reads “Tell your family how you feel about organ donation.”

The panel has been painted by a local Tesco volunteer – who has asked to remain anonymous – and who has painted panels for other local charitable organisations as part of the store’s community work.