Here are all the ideas competing to win KGH's Dragons' Den

This year's Dragons' Den at KGH will see nine bids try and impress the judges with their ideas to improve patient care and win a share of £100,000.

The competition will take place on Thursday, February 6, and the bids will be hoping to impress a panel of six Dragons, including rugby star Ben Cohen.

KGH director of finance, Nicci Briggs, said: "We have received some fantastic bids from both individuals and teams which our Dragons will evaluate on the night."

Each individual or team will have up to five minutes to deliver their pitch followed by five minutes of questions from the Dragons, all in front of an audience of 175 people.

At the end of the event, the Dragons will consult and the audience votes will be counted.

The ideas this year are:

An A&E pastoral care team.

This bid is to recruit 30 pastoral care volunteers from all faith communities who would support vulnerable patients and families in A&E on Friday and Saturday evenings, which would enable staff to concentrate on clinical care.

Dementia-friendly ward.

This idea is about turning one of the two older people wards at KGH into a more dementia and delirium patient friendly place, by painting wall murals and making better use of light, through sky lights.

Mobility volunteers.

This bid is to recruit and train 20 mobility volunteers to help patients with things like chair-based exercises to supplement the work done by therapy teams.

An ultrasound machine.

This entrant is asking for a new special ultrasound machine that would improve the help for children with neuro-muscular difficulties, like cerebal palsy, and get them the right treatments to improve their mobility and independence.

Blood and transplant donation app.

This bid is to develop a mobile phone app to help improve tissue donation from KGH to NHS Blood and Transplant. There would be a dedicated nurse to help raise awareness of donation at the end of life.

Online virtual tour of KGH.

This idea aims to help patients feel more at ease about what a hospital visit will involve. The tour would be shared on the KGH website and staff app and the pitchers say it would be good for children, patients with autism, and patients with disabilities.

What it's like to have surgery videos.

These videos would use KGH staff and explain what exactly to expect when having a planned procedure at KGH. The videos would be reassuring and published online.

Laparoscopic simulator.

A laparoscopic simulator would enable junior doctors to practice camera-guided procedures and improve their skills and confidence before doing it for real.

The Dragons they'll be pitching to are Alan Burns, chairman of KGH and NGH, Ben Cohen, former Northampton Saints rugby player, David Laing, the Lord-Lieutenant of Northamptonshire, Caroline Anstee, owner and founder of Anstee & Co independent financial planning firm in Kettering, and Ben Thomas, owner of All Things Business, the county's most read business publication.

The last event in 2018 saw a successful pitch for a patient buggy service that launched in July 2019.

It now delivers patients from hospital car parks to buildings and has already made more than 4,000 journeys.

The show will take place in The Hall at KGH, which is the staff recreation hall, from 6pm-9pm. It is now sold out but there will be posts on social media under the hashtag #dragonsdenkgh2020.

Nicci Briggs added: "Seeing staff present their cases to the local Dragons for a share of the £100,000 of capital funding will be very exciting and great fun and we are all very much looking forward to the event."