Can North Northants really wait another decade for a new hospital?
Work will not start until 2032 at the earliest and there's no date for when a new facility will be completed.
Three years ago, the then boss at Kettering General Hospital Simon Weldon, said the care facility was no longer fit for purpose. The hospital on Rothwell Road, has sections dating back to Victorian times and currently relies on temporary boilers to power it.
The government pledged a new building in 2019 and plans have been ongoing for several years, but the recent announcement by the new Labour government that means a new hospital will not open until 2035 at the earliest, has come as a harsh blow.
It’s now a political football once again, with the health secretary Wes Streeting saying the Tory government did not have the money it promised and gave false hope, but putting this political squabbling aside can the hospital really cope for another ten years in its current state?
Rated as requiring improvement by the Care Quality Commission, it has faced severe criticism in recent years and inspectors said last year the quality of leadership had declined and there were still overcrowding issues in accident and emergency, which at times was causing young children to have to witness traumatic events.
Currently the hospital’s maternity wing has a reinforced concrete issue and after giving birth some new mothers are having to be transported across the car park in wintry weather to receive post natal care.
There is a new team at the helm - chief executive Laura Churchwood took over the chief executive role of KGH and its partner hospital in Northampton general in the autumn - who said the delay will create problems.
She said:
“While we understand the New Hospitals Programme must be affordable, we are disappointed by the decision to delay the next steps in our development programme until 2029/2030. This delay poses a significant challenge to our plans and the delivery of much-needed improvements for the patients and communities we serve.
“Capital investment in infrastructure is vital to the health and wellbeing of people in Kettering. While we await further details, we remain steadfast in our commitment to progress. We will continue to build our new Energy Centre by 2027, driving forward the transformation that our hospital needs along with moving ahead on our plans to address the RAAC concrete in our Women’s and Children's unit.”
Healthwatch Northamptonshire, is a body which represents patients.
Chair Morcea Walker said:
“Healthwatch in Northamptonshire is naturally very disappointed that any new buildings for Kettering General will now be further delayed.
“This should not affect the service that residents receive in the existing buildings. Also, with the development of Community Diagnostic Centres we should also see some services out in the community and closer to home.
“The plan was never for a whole new hospital but improvements to the existing estate. Healthwatch will continue to represent the public at all levels to ensure that services continue and that there is continuous service improvement based on the feedback from local communities.”
A staff member, who did not want to be named, said the announcement that a new hospital will not be in place until into the next decade has hit morale.
They said:
“Morale was already low and this has made things worse. Some departments are now booking in patients for appointments a year down the line. And GPs and the hospital don’t seem to be working well together as they are both stretched, with GPs refusing to do some treatments they might have done before, as they have their own capacity issues.
“It is hard for staff as we are having to deal with understandably angry patients and having to work in an environment that is not helping.
“The bosses are constantly moving around departments to make more space, it really is not good.”
Patient concerns
NN Journal went along to the hospital yesterday and spoke with users.
Jules Pagano, of Barton Seagrave said she thinks the delay is ‘disgusting’.
She said:
“We deserve something better, and I feel let down by Labour. Many of the wards are run down and need revamping. I was in hospital for five days and did not think the treatment was good. When you are in there, there is nothing to keep your mind occupied, no radio in the wards. I had to download Netflix to my phone to keep stimulated.”
David Wissen, 83, of Desborough, who was recently widowed, spent Christmas in the hospital after falling in his home.
He said:
“I can’t say anything against the staff, as they are marvellous. But there are accessibility issues and a new hospital is needed.”
David has eye degeneration and has regular injections, but has concerns about plans to move the ophthalmology treatments to Nene Park Outpatients centre in Irthlingborough. He can currently get a bus from Desborough to Kettering for his appointments, but unable to drive, he is unsure of whether there is a public transport route to the new treatment centre.
Growth in demand
North Northamptonshire is one of the fastest growing areas in the county. Since 2019 population has grown by 13 per cent and each day residents, often from outside the county, are moving into new homes in large scale developments, such as at Hanwood Park in Kettering, Priors Hall Park in Corby and Glenvale Park in Wellingborough.
And there are more large developments in the pipeline, even before the government’s new housing targets kick in.
And the figures of just how many people access medical services are reportedly incorrect. The county’s Integrated Care Board (which commissions services) thinks there could be around 50,000 more people living in the county than officially recognised by the Office for National Statistics. (Read a recent Guardian report about the issues at the ONS.)
GPs practices are also feeling the strain. A report about the facilities at Hanwood Park, which is four miles away from the hospital, says the three surgeries in the nearby area are now well over capacity due to the extra residents in the area.
What the politicians say
The poor state of the hospital was a key part of the campaigning of all three of the Labour candidates for North Northants, who were elected in July.
Asked by NN Journal whether the Northern side of the county could wait another decade for upgrades, all three did not answer the question directly, instead pointing the problem back in the direction of the former Tory government.
Kettering MP Rosie Wrighting said:
“People in Kettering are not getting the care they deserve because of 14 years of the Conservatives underfunding the NHS. We inherited an NHS with waiting times that are too long, corridor care being normal and hospitals that are crumbling.
“Rebuilding a hospital requires a complex construction plan and the KGH project should have been fully costed, properly funded and with an honest timetable when it was promised in 2019. Instead what we got was a work of fiction and false promises – giving the people of Kettering hope that KGH would be rebuilt soon and leading them up the garden path when the money was due to run out in March 2025.
“I am as disappointed as everyone by this. What local residents will see soon though, thanks to action by this Labour Government instead of Conservative dithering, is progress. Work on the new energy centre, which is critical for the new and improved hospital, is scheduled for completion by 2027 after Labour rightly prioritised it. On Wednesday the Prime Minister also confirmed that the RAAC in the maternity unit is being mitigated and replaced through a national programme.
“The planning and business case by the previous Government and NHS England is based on the current site. This is the programme that I inherited and the one that will see a new hospital that works for the people of Kettering the fastest. A new site will need new plans and business cases and lead to delay.”
Corby and East Northants MP Lee Barron, said:
“Sadly the years of false promises for Kettering General Hospital is an unforgivable legacy left by the Tories. Time and again they led us up the garden path, raising expectations that we could expect a new hospital overnight when the money simply wasn’t there. With the people of Corby and East Northamptonshire I know how important the hospital is for our community and that's why local residents, staff and patients expect an honest, realistic and deliverable timetable."
Wellingborough and Rushden MP Gen Kitchen said:
“The New Hospitals Programme, announced by Boris Johnson in 2020, promised ‘40 new hospitals’ but was delayed by years and not a single new hospital had been constructed by the time the Conservatives left office. Upon coming into power, Labour found that the funding for the programme was shockingly due to run out in March 2025.
“Local people are right to be angry about this. Since the government was elected in July it has been important to make sure that the project is deliverable and that we are honest with residents. This is in contrast with the Conservatives who committed nowhere enough money to this project, made promises they couldn’t keep and must have known before the election that the project was not deliverable for the 2030 target.
“With a growing population, we all know how important the rebuild of Kettering General Hospital is for our community and that's why local residents, staff and patients expect an honest, realistic and deliverable timetable. I’m relieved that is what the Government has given us.
“The three North Northamptonshire MPs have all had conversations with the Health Secretary’s team to make sure that the rebuild of Kettering General Hospital is delivered as soon as possible. I’m therefore delighted that Rosie has been successful in securing pre-construction work which is due to be completed by 2027, something which the previous government never did.
“As part of my role as Member of Parliament for Wellingborough & Rushden, one of my key pledges is healthcare provision. I regularly meet with health bosses, GPs and patient groups to discuss how we can improve NHS services across the local area.”
Dez Dell, who is a Green Party councillor for the Brambleside ward in Kettering says the ‘crumbling’ hospital needs urgent attention.
He said:
“KGH is crucial to our health and well being in Kettering and the whole of North Northants. Rebuild delays are very disappointing, to say the least. The years of insufficient investment means we see the NHS creaking under the strain every day.
“More and more houses are being built locally and the people that move in need access to GP surgeries and dentists, let alone the hospital.
“The government must invest now, KGH is crumbling and we cannot wait another decade for investment.
Back to the drawing board?
There are also now questions over the current design. The plan was to build the new hospital on the already constrained site, with a phased approach, shutting down some buildings while building the new. The design was bespoke, but in his statement to parliament last week, the health secretary said the new hospitals would be standardised to save costs.
It is unclear whether any standard design could be built on the cramped site at KGH, which opens up the possibility of a new site.
When the new hospital was first announced in 2019, a build on virgin ground was dismissed, largely due to costs (it was quoted at around £1bn) but the considered site was never made public. Hospital bosses said building on the current site would save time, as there would not be any planning red tape to deal with, but now that the build has been pushed back again, a new site could be an option.
NN Journal asked the hospital whether this was a consideration and it said it is too early to answer any questions.
So here we go again - both parties blaming the other. Why don't they get together to solve the problem?
We will get to the next election and the blame game will start again.
The new hospital and the funding requirements were a sham for the elections. It is now clear that the Conservative MO for Kettering, at the time, must have known there was no plan to proceed no money for the project and no intention to be honest with the public. As a Labour Party member knocking on doors for the elections, even I was convinced the project was well underway. My job was to convince people that we would follow through with it. But there was no plan. I feel sickened to have been taken in with the lie. Now the Conservatives are saying it is Labour that is letting the public down. I should have known better than to trust anything that comes out of the Conservative Party propaganda machine.