NGH and KGH to hold joint annual meeting

The event is being held online on Wednesday, November 1, 2023, from 10am-12 noon via a Microsoft Meetup on this link.

It is a unique opportunity to hear direct from the two hospitals senior leadership teams which together now serve more than 750,000 local people since we became the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire NHS Group in July 2021.

Group Chair John MacDonald said: “We welcome all local people to attend our joint annual meeting to find out more about our progress, the challenges we have faced, and our plans for the future.

“While the direct impact of the Covid-19 pandemic abated during the 2022-2023 reporting year, like all NHS Trusts, we have been dealing with a backlog of operations and waits for diagnostic tests created by the necessarily restricted services operating during the pandemic.

“Our dedicated teams at both hospitals have responded magnificently to this challenge and are working hard to cut waiting times in all areas.

“One example of progress was when, in May 2022, we proudly announced that both of our breast screening teams at KGH and NGH had succeeded in completely catching up on appointment backlogs caused by the pandemic.”

One of the barriers to quickly reducing waiting lists is being able to carry out all the appropriate diagnostic tests in a timely way before operations.

Mr MacDonald said: “I am delighted to say that during the reporting year we made a successful bid as a county for £17m towards two new Community Diagnostic Centres in Corby and Northampton which will help us make a significant impact on waiting times. Already we are working in additional mobile units to deliver extra tests and waiting times are falling at pace.”

The two hospitals are also rising to meet the challenge of being one of the fastest growing counties in the country by improving their facilities.

One example, at Northampton General Hospital, was the opening of a new £15.9m Critical Care Unit in June 2022. This unit helps future proof intensive care at the hospital and has already provided life-saving care for more than 900 patients in its first year.

At Kettering General Hospital we have been progressing our plans for the major rebuild of the hospital under the Government’s New Hospital Programme.

Mr MacDonald said: “During the reporting year we heard the great news that, following a national review, we remain in phase four of the New Hospital Programme and we have received written confirmation of an initial £38m to help us start on our journey to rebuild substantial parts of the hospital by 2030.”

Both hospitals are now working more closely together than ever before to develop facilities to best support our growing populations and, with the hospital group’s strengthened university and research status, we are looking to attract talents that will help us become national centres of excellence in key areas of care.

Mr MacDonald said: “Northampton is working to become a centre of excellence in cancer care and one strand of that work has been to introduce robotic surgery for cancer.

“This has already been very successful with more than 300 cancer operations using precision key-hole techniques which enable patients to recover much more quickly from their surgery.

“At Kettering the hospital is aiming to become a cardiology centre of excellence. It is already the HQ for the county’s 24/7 emergency heart attack service and is looking at many other new and innovative ways of better supporting cardiac patients.

“All of this would not have been possible without our amazing staff. We are working hard in both hospitals to hear the voices of all our teams, support equality and diversity, celebrate their very many achievements, and make our hospital group a great place to work.”

Your chance to have your say

At the meeting you will hear from Group Chairman, John MacDonald, Chief Executives, Heidi Smoult (NGH) and Debbie Needham (KGH), along with other senior colleagues.

You can ask questions live during the Annual Members Meeting, using the on-line question and answer facility, or you can submit questions in advance. To submit a question please email kgh-tr.corporate@nhs.net or telephone Richard May, Group Company Secretary, on 07814-078217 by 12 noon on Tuesday 31 October 2023.

You can join the meeting using this link: Annual General Meeting 2023.