MEET THE GOVERNORS: No time to get bored at KGH board meetings

KGH's governor for the East Northants constituency says hospital board meetings are anything but boring.

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 Northamptonshire, has written the ninth in a series of pieces about the governors which we will be bringing to you in the coming weeks.

This week's topic is board meetings at Kettering General Hospital.

Dr Blades told the Northants Telegraph: "One of the responsibilities of governors is to observe meetings of the board of directors at Kettering General Hospital

"These meeting are attended by the lead governor who can contribute to the meeting.

"All meetings are open to the public and I have been to past meetings and sat alongside interested members of the public.

"Nowadays all meetings are by video conferences and more people can attend.

"All past meeting minutes are available on the website and these minutes include very useful presentations.

"Board meetings sound a very onerous event but these are not as the chairman includes something of more general interest.

"Highlights for me have been Ned’s story which was a heart-rending tale to encourage influenza vaccination, a really clear presentation on Covid from the medical director, information from frontline staff on working with Covid, and a chat between clinicians about how useful digital records were in the meeting break.

"Do look out for meetings."

For more information on board meetings, click here.

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.

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].

If you have a question specifically for Dr Blades about her role as a governor, you can get in touch via @blades_mabel on Twitter.

To read the latest piece from the governors, click here.

Message from the editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the highest standards in the world. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers and consequently the advertising that we receive.

We are now more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you