Meet the governors: KGH's public governor for East Northants gives insight into how hospital managed PPE during coronavirus crisis

KGH's public governor for East Northants has spoken about the work of the audit committee, including how the hospital has managed PPE during Covid-19.

The governors at KGH have teamed up with the Northants Telegraph to give our readers an insight into their role and the work they do.

Dr Mabel Blades, the trust's membership engagement lead who is also an elected public governor for East Northants, has written the sixth in a series of pieces about the governors which we will be bringing to you in the coming weeks.

Dr Blades said: "As a governor at Kettering General Hospital one of the responsibilities we have is to hold the non-executive directors to account.

"The non-executive directors (NEDs) are people who are appointed to provide independent and expert challenge to the board of directors at Kettering General Hospital.

"There is information on this here.

"To help us to form opinions of NEDs governors are asked to attend meetings to view the way they work.

"Governors are nominated to attend different board meetings.

"I attend the audit committee meetings and have to say I love these meetings as I feel they look at everything.

"There are a lot of papers approximately 200 pages per meeting but the text is assisted by helpful diagrams

"Audit meetings are chaired by the NED Trevor Shipman who has a wealth of experience and is also the deputy chair of the hospital trust.

"Covid has obviously featured as part of the audit and I was really pleased to see from the information provided how well PPE was being managed with purchasing, information and training at the hospital.

"If you are not a member of the trust you can sign up at online membership application form."

There are 25 governors on the KGH Council, including 13 public elected governors representing the four districts in which the majority of patients live: Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough and East Northants and one governor representing the rest of the UK.

A key role of the council of governors is to hold the non-executive directors, both individually and collectively, to account for the performance of the board of directors and to represent the interests of NHS foundation trust members, staff and the public.

To read last week's piece with the governors, click here.

The Northants Telegraph will be hearing from more of the governors in the coming weeks and if you have any questions to put to them, email them to [email protected]

You can also contact Dr Blades on Twitter via @blades_mabel