Overcrowded and no longer fit for purpose

What’s the hold up with Kettering General Hospital’s promised Accident and Emergency department rebuild?

By Sarah Ward

Kettering General Hospital’s Accident and Emergency department is bursting at the seams.

Built in the mid 1990s with a capacity to see 100 patients a day, it now often has 300 people daily coming through its doors and the numbers are rising as the local population grows and ages. 

Five years ago, a visiting consultant said the hospital had the worst A & E department he had ever seen, worse than any he had come across in UK, Australia, the USA or India and health watchdog the Care Quality Commission was severely critical of the children’s A and E department in a 2019 inspection, ordering bosses to redesign the layout.

The Kettering General Hospital Trust has itself said most of its buildings (some of which date back to the late 1890s) are not fit for purpose (it has a maintenance backlog of £42m) and the issues within A & E include lack of privacy and dignity for patients due to overcrowding and sick children having to wait in corridors. Waiting times are also consistently w…