Hospital Group works towards a sustainable future

We are celebrating some of our efforts towards a sustainable future as a hospital Group.
The University Hospitals of Northamptonshire NHS Group – which runs both Northampton and Kettering General Hospitals – is aiming to be carbon net zero by 2040 in line with national NHS targets.

Here are some of the many ways we are doing that:

At Northampton General Hospital

• Northampton General Hospital has been awarded a £20.6m Government grant to replace fossil fuel heating with more renewable sources. The Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy announced the award as part of phase 3a of its public sector decarbonisation schemes which aim to reduce emissions from public sector buildings by 75% by 2037
• In addition we are installing further energy efficiency measures such roof-mounted solar panels, LED lighting, insulation and more efficient motors and fans used in hospital heating and ventilation. We have already worked-up designs for how we use the Government grant and start the work on the improvements this Summer to complete them before March 2024.
• We have created a ‘Weeds for Bees’ scheme whereby some areas of our grounds have been allowed to grow wild.
• We have successfully reduced the use of the anaesthetic gas desflurane to 0.4% of all of its anaesthetic gases – better than the NHS target. As well as saving money this has also offset the hospital’s impact on the environment by 500 tonnes of CO2e
• We have replaced a petrol pick-up van with an electric one.

At Kettering General Hospital

• There are major plans for a new electric-powered Energy Centre as part its rebuild under the National Hospitals Programme (HIP2) scheme. The hospital currently rents its fossil fuel-powered boilers after its old steam-powered ones were decommissioned as no longer fit for purpose in 2014.
• A key aim for us is to make the hospital as efficient and environmentally friendly as possible. Our hospital rebuild will be built to the highest possible energy efficiency standards and in the future we will no longer be relying on fossil fuel.
• A food digester machine recycles all of our kitchen waste each month and turns it into biofuel.
• Our fleet of hospital vans – which are used to pick up test requests and patient notes from its outlying outpatient sites – have, since 2021, all been replaced with hybrid electric vehicles
• Our long-established Pocket Park supports local wildlife and includes a pond, butterfly bushes, native tress and areas set aside for wildflowers and insects
• Twelve electric vehicle charging points have been installed in NGH’s car park with more to come.
• KGH has a charging point for its electric vans and has plans for more as part of its rebuild.

In 2019-2020 Both Northampton and Kettering hospitals signed up to a national NHS Plastics Pledge to eliminate avoidable single use plastics – such as water cups and cutlery.

Both hospitals have plans for an E-bikes-to-work scheme for staff to start this summer.