News

Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is looking for nine new Public Governors to help shape its services and plan for the future.

The vacancies, created by the current nine Governors coming to the end of their term of office, are in Kettering, Corby, East Northamptonshire, Wellingborough and the Rest of UK

Kettering General Hospital is expanding a major ‘front door’ emergency care service for patients who can be reviewed, treated and discharged on the same day.

Work has begun on a £300,000 plan to almost double the size of the hospital’s Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) service based next to the main A&E entrance.

The move is urgently needed as emergency care presentations at the hospital are now rising to almost pre-Covid levels.

Kettering General Hospital is supporting local people who want to say a special thank you to nurses and midwives who have given them extraordinarily care.

Kettering General Hospital is thanking its dedicated volunteers for their support during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many of the Trust’s regular army of about 250 volunteers’ were unable to continue working during this period because their age, or underlying medical conditions – a great frustration for them.

  However some of our volunteers – including many new volunteers – have been able to continue to work during this difficult period in different ways as we adapted to meet the Covid-19 challenge – and we are urging all volunteers to keep in touch with us.

A five-year-old KGH patient who has been shielding during Covid-19 has secured Paw Patrol toys for our children’s ward – with a little help from Boris Johnson and Prince William.

Kaydyn Mcveigh, from Corby, was born with cystic fibrosis (CF) –which means he is vulnerable to infections of his lungs, hence the need to shield during the pandemic.

As part of the shielding process mum Leanne and grandmother Jackie received food parcels through the post.

Kaydyn naturally asked who they were from and Leanne told him ‘Boris Johnson’.

She said: “Kaydyn wanted to say thank you to Boris so he sent him a thank you video from himself.

“Boris Johnson was delighted and he, Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick, tweeted the video.

“The next thing we knew we had a call from the Palace to say Prince William wanted to speak to Kaydyn to give him a boost – as we had been shielding from a week before lockdown began on March 16.”

This resulted in a one-to-one video call with the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, on May 22, for half-an-hour from the Sandringham estate to the Mcveigh’s Corby home.

People living in the Kettering General Hospital catchment area are being urged to get involved in shaping the future of their local hospital.

The hospital is holding an engagement event to enable people to share their views on what they consider important to include in any new development.

The aim is to make the most of an opportunity for major Government capital investment in the Trust through the national Healthcare Infrastructure Plan (HIP2) and plans for an Urgent Care Hub.

A chance to find out more about how Kettering General Hospital coped during the Covid-19 pandemic – and learn about our other achievements over the last year – will be available online on September 30.

For the first time in its history the Trust is having a virtual Annual Members’ Meeting that anyone with internet access can attend.

After that we are holding a private virtual Thank You event for staff for their work during the coronavirus pandemic along with our normal annual Employee Excellence and Long Service Awards.

As part of that internal celebration the Trust is airing a short video we made to demonstrate how staff worked through Covid-19. While our internal Thank you event is private the short film will be available to the public on our Facebook page from 4pm on September 30. It will also be included in our virtual Annual Members’ Meeting which is being held from 3pm-4pm.