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The newly refurbished area will mean face-to-face appointments can be held for some of the 10,000 children who need paediatric outpatient care

Kettering General Hospital has opened a £185,000 new paediatric outpatients clinic on its main Kettering site suitable for face-to-face consultations with children and their parents.

Over the past year face-to-face paediatric outpatients’ services have been delivered from the hospital’s outlying sites at Nene Park, Irthlingborough, and Nuffield Diagnostic Centre, Corby,

rather than the main KGH site.

The new clinic’s first patient six-month-old Freddie Gibson and his mum, Jade Jones, and dad, Jason Gibson, cut the ribbon to open the newly refurbished area

This was because the former Kettering paediatric outpatients area, in the hospital’s Foundation Wing, was transformed into a paediatric A&E department in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now the trust has created a new paediatric outpatients clinic close to A&E on the main hospital site and it was officially opened on Friday (April 9).

However, the paediatric A&E department remains in the Foundation Wing.

Kettering General Hospital’s matron for outpatient services, Siobhan Roe, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has meant that we have had to completely transform the way we have delivered

L-R Matron for Outpatients Siobhan Roe, Receptionist, Jill Devlin, Healthcare Assistant, Michala Stronner, Deputy Sister, Judith McGrenaghan, and Play Specialist, Charlotte Dayman with a distraction toy trolley

paediatric outpatient services to maintain high standards of safety.

“Our purpose built area, in the Foundation Wing, had to become a paediatric A&E, literally overnight, on March 23, 2020, so that we could separate children’s A&E into an area with

less footfall.

“Where possible we have then delivered many children’s outpatient appointment through telephone and video clinics.

“But of course there are always occasions where face-to-face examinations and discussions are needed.

“Over the last year these clinics have been held at our locations in Irthlingborough and Corby.

“We are now very pleased to announce that we have a newly refurbished area on the main KGH site where we can hold face-to-face appointments for some of the 10,000 children who

need paediatric outpatient care.”

The new area has:

- Five clinic room to enable specialist doctors and nurses to carry out face-to-face examinations

- A dedicated space for paediatric orthopaedics clinics

- A new reception and socially distanced waiting area

- Two store rooms and an office

Paediatric orthopaedic clinics had been running alongside adult clinics in the Frank Radcliffe Clinic at KGH during the pandemic – but these will now be in the newly refurbished paediatric

area.

KGH chief operating officer, Fay Gordon, said: “I am delighted that we are now able to offer paediatric outpatient services on the KGH site once again.

“This will be welcome news for local families who have had to travel to other locations for face-to-face appointments during the pandemic.”

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KGH opens new £185,000 paediatric outpatients clinic in new premises on main hospital site