KGH learning from lessons as it prepares for second Covid-19 wave

The chief executive of Kettering General Hospital says they are 'thinking very hard' about how to deal with a second wave of Covid-19.

Simon Weldon said the Rothwell Road hospital is currently dealing with a 'relatively low' number of coronavirus patients - but they are not complacent.

Mr Weldon, who is now group chief executive of KGH and NGH, said the hospitals have learnt 'a huge amount' about how to manage the virus during the pandemic which will help should a second wave arrive as feared in the autumn or winter.

He told the Northants Telegraph: "We feel that although we are not complacent that we are thinking very hard about how to prepare for a second [wave].

"If a second wave comes we will need the support of our community to be responsible, socially distance and take all of the hand hygiene precautions."

He added: "There's always a chance to develop how we respond to it when we deal with the second wave."

The number of positive tests in the community have risen in recent weeks. Kettering and Corby have been identified as potential hotspots with health chiefs monitoring a rise in infections, and nearby Northampton designated as an 'area of concern'.

At the end of May KGH was still treating 100 Covid patients. The current number of patients is unknown but the Northants Telegraphcan reveal that on July 17 the hospital had zero Covid patients in intensive care and had discharged a total of 288 patients.​ Last week KGH suffered its first Covid death for 19 days, bringing the sobering death toll there to 218.

But hundreds of patients were moved from the county's hospitals in March and placed - despite being untested - into the county's care homes in a bid to free up beds.

Since then more than 85 of the county's 250 residential care settings have suffered from an outbreak with more than 120 care home residents dying after testing positive for the virus.

One of those, Kettering's Temple Court, saw 16 residents die and is currently being investigated by the police.

Asked whether he had any regrets over releasing untested patients into the community, Mr Weldon said: "I can only, like everybody else, follow the guidance that we are given. If I do my best and I encourage my staff to do their best to follow the guidance, then that's where I would feel that I would want to focus my comment on today.

"I think otherwise it becomes a different type of dialogue. I do believe that all the staff who have worked on discharging patients have had an incredibly difficult job to do and have tried to do so fairly and sympathetically, and complying with national guidance."

Another care home, Cheaney Court in Desborough, had a mass outbreak with 36 positive tests after three patients were transferred into the home from KGH and Cransley Hospice.

When they were sent in their paperwork said they had tested negative for coronavirus. Immediate tests done by the care home showed that all three had the virus and the hospital said it ‘used the best tests possible’ but only 75 per cent of tests carried out are accurate.

When asked what he did to ask for more accurate tests from the Government, Mr Weldon said it had been a 'hugely challenging' situation.

He said: "Can I hand on heart say my staff did all that they could to protect the interests of patients and care for them in the best possible way? Yes I can. Do we continue to learn and want to do better? Yes of course we do.

"That's where we need to put our focus as we go forward."

KGH and NGH recently moved to a group management model which saw Mr Weldon become group chief executive. The hospitals will work much more closely together and could share approaches to services such as IT and estates.

There are already shared approaches "to improve patient care" with stroke patients being sent to Northampton for emergency stroke treatment and some heart attack patients being sent to Kettering for some of their treatments.

But Mr Weldon ruled out a merger between the two hospitals in the future.

He said: "I have got no plans, no intention of looking at a merger. There will still be two organisations serving their local population.

"What we are about is improving the quality of care that we provide to local people. That's what I am going to be completely focused on. When I talk to the doctors and nurses here they are really excited by the opportunities."

KGH - which is currently being investigated by police over allegations of 'fiddling' waiting list figures - expects to bring forward plans for a new urgent care hub in the 'not too distant' future.

It has been given millions in Government funding for a complete rebuild which could be on the cards to start as soon as 2025 and Mr Weldon said it was a "real statement of faith in the hospital".

He said they had got about £400m so far and will be working out how to make best use of it.

Asked whether they had looked at building the new hospital on a site away from their current home, he said: "We are, at the moment, looking at options and fundamentally we hope to make very good use of the Kettering site in Rothwell Road to be honest.

"That's the site in which we are currently based. We certainly have done the work to prove that we can redevelop the site and still continue to provide hospital services.

"I am confident that we will continue to advance those plans and hopefully come up with a really exciting solution. I don't want to start commenting on the details of specifics here because we are too early to do that."

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