£2.4m refurbishment plan for special measures hospital

Kettering General Hospital has launched a £2.4 million refurbishment and relocation programme to improve care for A&E patients and transform its ‘cramped’ emergency department.

The hospital, which treats 93,000 A&E patients per year, was rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ by the Care Quality Commission on February, an upgrade on its ‘Inadequate’ rating the year previous. The latest report from the inspectorate said that, while management had driven improvements across the trust, A&E waiting times were cited as an area for progress. The hospital remains in special measures overall.

As part of its A&E expansion plans, Kettering General Hospital will expand the size of the department within the hospital’s current footprint, hoping to free up more space to treat patients with more serious conditions.

Joanna Fawcus, chief operating officer at the trust, said: “Despite the work we have done over the last two years to expand our A&E department it is clear more needs to be done to improve the facilities we have for urgent care patients.

“In the long term we hope our bid to develop a multi-million pound Urgent Care Hub will be successful so that we can future proof the service and meet the needs of our patients. In the short term we are looking at every possible way we can improve the existing department.”

The new A&E area is expected to open on 22 December.

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This story was first published in digitalhealth.net

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