Have your say on the future of our hospital services

The University Hospitals of Northamptonshire NHS Group – which runs Northampton and Kettering general hospitals – is collecting feedback on our ambitious Group Clinical Strategy which will be re-shaping the way we deliver our services.

We need to meet the challenges of population growth, high demand, NHS staff shortages, and ensure our services are safe, of a high standard, and are available to residents regardless of where they live.

We want to hear your opinions on our strategy so far and what needs to be done to meet your needs and improve your experience of care.

To do this we are holding two online engagement events next week - on 5 and 6 April - where people will be able to find out more about our strategy and voice their views.

Simon Weldon, Group Chief Executive with Mr Matt Metcalfe and Dr Rabia Imtiaz, Medical Directors at Northampton and Kettering General hospitals, will host the events.

Dr Imitiaz said: “After becoming a University Hospital Group in July last year we have been working very hard to develop a Clinical Strategy that will help us shape future hospital services at both Northampton and Kettering general hospitals. By working together we have a great opportunity to realise benefits for our patients and staff and meet the challenges of rising population and demand for services. Working as a Group would also enable us to offer more career development to staff and do more research as part of our University Hospitals status.”

Mr Metcalfe said: “A big challenge for acute general hospitals is having enough skilled staff to deliver appropriate services to patients in enough volume to achieve high clinical standards. One of the ways we are looking to do this is to create centres of excellence for cancer and cardiac care in Northamptonshire. This would enable us to do more specialist work in this county, reducing the need for people to travel out of county for certain operations. An example is the £1.7m surgical robot which we have bought as a Hospital Group to improve care for cancer patients across Northamptonshire.”

We have already been engaging with our staff and clinical leaders on the Clinical Strategy and are now widening that engagement to collect the views of our local community.

We are urging local people to take the time to listen to our plans and make their views known. It is important that the changes we plan to make meet the needs of our community.

The online public conversations will run on:

5 April at 5pm https://bit.ly/uhnpub5

6 April at 6pm https://bit.ly/uhnpub6

Please click the link to join either session on either dates to take part in our conversation.

You will be able to offer feedback on our ambition plans at the event and these which will be recorded. All comments will be collected and could be used to help us further inform our strategy.

You can also feedback via email uhn.clinicalstrategy@nhs.net

For further updates, follow us on social media. @KettGeneral @NGHnhstrust