KGH moves to be 'near the front' of hospital rebuild queue, meeting hears

A Northamptonshire health director has said that plans to rebuild Kettering General Hospital are on track and progressing faster than many similar schemes across the country.

Health officials intend to completely rebuild KGH, moving services into two new six-storey buildings located on the same site, off Rothwell Road. The government has allocated £315m to fund the hospital works, on top of £49m for a new A&E department.

Director of strategy at University Hospitals of Northamptonshire, Polly Grimmett, told the North Northants Health and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday (January 9) that the proposals for the new health centre to remain in the same location made progress “a lot simpler and a lot easier”.

The council has avoided entering a lengthy consultation process involving buying land and creating new highways and infrastructure on top of everything else involved in the rebuild. She said that NHS England “really welcomed” it as a “very sensible and positive scheme”.

She added: “When you look at some of the other 40 schemes across the UK that were actually ahead of us initially, they’ve slowed right down and we’ve sped up because they’ve been stuck in public consultation for quite some time.

“Our local MPs are very supportive, as are NHS England, to say it’s a scheme that’s fairly simple, won’t get stuck in the mire and can progress fairly well.”

The timeline of the programme nationally has been questioned, with the National Audit Office (NAO) reporting delays for many hospital schemes. However, Ms Grimmett said the Kettering site has moved to be “near the front” of other hospital builds in the running.

According to the NAO, only three hospitals had opened by June 2023 against an expectation of five. Forecast costs for the first two cohorts also increased by 41 per cent during the three years.

Ms Grimmett did touch on some concerns that “40 hospitals could not possibly get built in a five-year period across the whole of the country”, but said it was something that all hospitals are “working through”.

The first step in renovations for KGH will see a new energy centre being built for the hospital, replacing the current 50-year-old steam system which regularly breaks down. The system relies on temporary boilers so that wards don’t go long periods without hot water and heating while it’s being fixed.

Work will begin on replacing the energy centre at the end of February, drawing from an individual pot of £49m. The electrical infrastructure will contribute to net-zero carbon goals and must be completed before any other expansion work can be started.

The first six-storey hospital building will be built in car park A in the centre of the site, with some staff parking being lost during this time and nearby NHS office space being demolished. Once building one is operational the second phase can begin which will include the new main entrance facing Rothwell Road.

Ms Grimmett said that, at this point, work is predicted to start in around 2026. She highlighted the key principle of keeping the hospital running during construction and said that there are longer-term plans to demolish the rest of the old buildings once services have been transferred over.