Kettering hospital rebuild faster than others - health chief

Kettering General Hospital hopes to rebuild most of the site

A plan to rebuild a hospital was moving faster than other similar projects in the country, a health boss has said.

Kettering General Hospital will completely reconstruct most of its site over several years while it continues to function as normal.

The first phase, the construction of an electrically-powered energy centre, is due to begin next month.

Polly Grimmett, from the hospital's trust, said it "won't get stuck in the mire and can progress fairly well".

It is one of 40 "new" hospital buildings promised by the government in 2019 for completion by 2030.

In Kettering, the government has allocated £315m to fund the hospital works, on top of £49m for a new A&E department, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Kettering General Hospital is rebuilding on its current site

Ms Grimmett, director of strategy at University Hospitals of Northamptonshire, said rebuilding the hospital at the same site made it "a lot simpler and a lot easier".

She told North Northamptonshire Council's Health and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday that NHS England described it as a "very sensible and positive scheme".

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Ms Grimmett said: "When you look at some of the other 40 schemes across the UK that were actually ahead of us initially, they've slowed right down and we've sped up because they've been stuck in public consultation for quite some time."

Work will begin on replacing the energy centre at the end of February, while Ms Grimmett said work on new buildings was predicted to start in 2026.

She added there were longer-term plans to demolish the rest of the old buildings once services had been transferred over.

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