Have your say on the future of Northamptonshire's hospital services

Hospital chiefs will be listening to public views on the strategy of Northampton and Kettering hospitals at an online event in April.

University Hospitals of Northamptonshire NHS Group – which runs the two acute units – is collecting feedback on its group clinical strategy which will be re-shaping the way it delivers services.

Simon Weldon, group chief executive with Matt Metcalfe and Dr Rabia Imtiaz, medical directors at NGH and KGH, will host the events on Tuesday (April 5) and Wednesday (April 6).

The group says it needs to meet the challenges of population growth, high demand, NHS staff shortages, and ensure services are safe, of a high standard, and are available to residents regardless of where they live.

It also wants to hear opinions on strategy so far and what needs to be done to meet needs and improve the public’s experience of care.

Dr Imitiaz said: “Since becoming a group last year, we have worked hard to develop a clinical strategy that will help us shape future hospital services.

"By working together we have a great opportunity to realise benefits for our patients and staff and meet the challenges of rising population and demand for services.”

Members of the public joining in the online sessions — which will be recorded – will be able to speak or type in comments which could be used to help further inform the group’s strategy.

Mr Metcalfe added: “A big challenge for acute general hospitals is having enough skilled staff to deliver appropriate services to patients in enough volume to achieve high clinical standards.

"One of the ways we are looking to do this is to create centres of excellence for cancer and cardiac care in Northamptonshire.

"This would enable us to do more specialist work — such as using our new £1.7m surgical robot — reducing the need for people to travel out of county for certain operations.

"An example is the £1.7m surgical robot we bought as a group to improve care for cancer patients.”

■ Joining instructions for the events will be posted on KGH and NGH websites, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. You can also email feedback to [email protected]