KETTERING TILES 10% PROMOTION OFF! SEE PAGE 9
Kettering General Hospital ROW Update
ISSUE 16 31 October 2012
30p
EVERY FORTNIGHT
Temperatures Readers rise over SAVE future £48 ALL the candidates in the Corby by-election have been briefed on the future of Kettering General and have been told it will remain a ‘viable, busy hospital’, the Extra can reveal today. The in-depth briefing, which included documents and statements, was made in a bid to end the speculation and claims surrounding the hospital’s future, which have dominated the election debate. But it has done nothing to calm the political row surrounding the hospital. The furore has also hit Prime Minister’s Question Time in the Commons, with David Cameron stressing services at Kettering were safe and accusing Labour of ‘scaremongering’. A ‘leaked’ report on future provision of services issued by Labour has also been dismissed as being out of date. However, Labour’s candidate Andy Sawford maintains KGH’s beds and services face a ‘massive cut’. There have also been claims that the hospital is being used as a ‘political football’ in the election campaign. Today the Extra can reveal details of the briefings given to the candidates in next month’s poll by those in charge of the Healthier Together review of acute hospital services which is looking at the future of KGH. They were told earlier this month that all five hospitals involved in the review, including KGH, would be retained as ‘viable, busy hospitals’. Each site would have a maternity and A&E service as well as outpatients and ‘many other routine services’. The candidates were told: “Three of the sites would concentrate on more acute and emergency care while the other two would focus more on planned and elective care. Detailed discussion of possible service locations is yet to take place. “Vigorous business modelling is being used to test the models which are also the subject of
Turn to page 3
Project7_Layout 1 27/10/2012 16:02 Page 1
Recovery
BOSSES at Kettering General Hospital are working to agree a “recovery plan” with a health watchdog that has called for action over its “persistent failure” to treat emergency patients within four hours. The health regulator Monitor also called for action over its concerns about the Trust’s “board governance and financial performance”. The regulator’s chief operating officer Stephen Hay said: “It is not acceptable that the trust is persistently failing its A&E patients. We now expect the Trust to focus on immediately and sustainably resolving this issue.”
on 4 driving
lessons with the
Duke and Duchess Couple who lost 21 stone between them . . . and found love! Page 6
TODAY IS D-DAY FOR THE POPPIES page 32 and Third Man page 24
OPEN 7 DAYS | Kettering Parkway East, Venture Park, Kettering NN15 6WY
t: 01536 534988
Driving School see their advertisement on page 3