£33 million extension for KGH maternity ward as part of RAAC works

The two-storey extension will be built behind the existing maternity unit to help the hospital’s maternity team to improve the care it delivers each year to about 3,000 families and their babies.

Kettering General Hospital (KGH) found reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in the roof of the Rockingham Wing in late 2023.

This forced some maternity services to relocate from the building to a temporary ward on the site’s main car park.

At a University Hospitals of Northamptonshire board meeting on Friday (February 7), chief executive Laura Churchward confirmed that there is still RAAC in the ward which makes part of the floor space unusable.

The estimated cost of the extension works was revealed to be around £33 million at the trust board meeting, subject to NHS England approval.

Plans for the unit expansion, which is expected to be built over the next two years, will re-accommodate some key services and improve the hospital’s maternity facilities.

They include a new location for the neonatal unit, a new bereavement suite on the ground floor, and a new 32-bed maternity unit to accommodate mothers before and after they have given birth on the first floor.

The delivery suite will remain in its current location in the ground floor of Rockingham Wing.

‘Significant disruption’ caused by RAAC discovery

The University Hospitals of Northamptonshire’s (UHN) director of midwifery, Ilene Machiva, said: “This new extension will enable a major improvement to our maternity services for local people and a much-improved working environment for our maternity team.

“It will come after the significant disruption caused by the discovery of RAAC in the roof of our maternity unit which meant we had to relocate some of our services out of the Wing and delay our plans for improving other areas.”

KGH’s maternity department opened in 1977. The concrete used in the roof was widely used in the construction of public buildings from the 1950s to 1990s, and experts say many buildings using the material have exceeded their lifespan.

UNH director of strategy, Polly Grimmett, said: “We have been working closely with NHS England to look at the best solutions for addressing the issues in our maternity unit which is now almost 50-years-old.

“The RAAC issue has meant we have had to think about how to address the direct care and capacity problems it has created and what is the best thing to do in the medium term.

“The extension is a good solution as it enables us to get services back into good and appropriate adjacent locations in a way which will improve the care we offer to local people.”

Part of the upper floor of Rockingham Wing is being propped up to make it completely safe and some hospital services may continue to use it.

The work should be completed in March.