Kettering General Hospital — [Derek Twigg in the Chair]

Opened the debate

The redevelopment of Kettering General Hospital is critical for addressing the healthcare needs in Northamptonshire. The hospital, which turned 125 this year, has been promised £46 million for an urgent care hub and a total investment package of £563 million from various funding streams. However, the hospital has not yet received the cash required to proceed with initial enabling works. There are three main risks: delays in receiving feedback on business case submissions, insufficient funds for essential site preparations, and potential loss of slippage money due to larger hospital development schemes.

Government Response

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Kettering on securing this debate. By my tally, this is the fourth debate I have responded to that he has secured on the future of Kettering General Hospital and its redevelopment. My hon. Friend the Member for Kettering made, as ever, a generous offer to visit Kettering General Hospital with him. It was a pleasure to do so in 2019, when he gave me a very warm welcome in Kettering. I also take his suggestion of visiting Northampton at the same time. Without setting a specific date, my aim is to try to visit him during the February recess—I will discuss this with him. As my hon. Friend set out, Kettering General Hospital is part of the broader foundation trust and continues to work closely with the central programme team in taking forward the rebuild of Kettering General as a new hospital for his community. It is part of the broader programme to build 40 new hospitals by 2030. Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has received £4.4 million of funding to develop its plans for the rebuilding of Kettering General Hospital. They were successful in securing funding back in 2019, at that stage for a new urgent care hub, which would transform the provision of urgent and critical care in the area. I know that officials are in discussion with the chief executive of the hospital trust regarding the trust's plans for enabling works on the Kettering General Hospital site and have set out what will be required for these proposals to be assessed as quickly as possible, once business cases are received from the trust. The Department wrote to the chief executive on 16 June last year to confirm that, at his request, the urgent care hub and new hospital programme schemes could be brought together as a single pot of money, to maximise the benefits that local people could derive. Kettering General Hospital is required to work with the central team and regional/local trust leadership to design and deliver their hospitals in keeping with a consistent and standardised national approach. All projects need to ensure that their approach aligns with this programme. The second element is the new boiler room and power plant, which would have to go through the full approvals process, but I understand that the board of the trust is due to meet in April to agree and finalise its proposal and business case on that work. As soon as it submits that, my officials will consider those proposals swiftly, once they have received them. All new hospitals need funding profiling made available by the Treasury. Although I cannot prejudge in this place that Kettering will be top of the list, he makes a strong case for Kettering to be one of the hospitals considered for acceleration if it is ready and the moneys become available. I am keen to see all these schemes progress and continue working closely with my hon. Friend.