Kettering General Hospital

Peter Bone Excerpts

Thursday 29th June 2017 Commons Chamber

[Tom Pursglove (Corby) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Mr Hollobone]

Well, it is very difficult for me to choose, but since our younger and fitter colleague was faster on his feet I am going to give way first to my hon. Friend the Member for Corby (Tom Pursglove).

[Mr Hollobone]

I am very grateful for that most kind invitation. I have visited the urgent care centre and I would be happy to do so again. I offer my hon. Friend my 100% support as he advances the importance of the urgent care centre with local funding bodies. He knows that he can always rely on me to support him in his endeavours. I am happy to give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone).

[Mr Bone]

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way to the older and more experienced Member from Northamptonshire. I congratulate him enormously on securing the debate and on how he is speaking so powerfully for Kettering hospital. The one bit of the triangle that is not there is an urgent care centre or minor injuries unit at the Isebrook hospital in Wellingborough. That is part of the plan approved by several Ministers from the Department of Health. I have great trouble getting commissioners to engage with that, but we need it to relieve pressure on the A&E at Kettering.

[Mr Hollobone]

As so often in this place, my hon. Friend speaks words of great wisdom and insight. He represents his constituents extremely well in repeating that point. The current draft sustainability and transformation plan for Northamptonshire is simply not good enough, because it does not place enough emphasis on developing the facilities my hon. Friend is speaking about. Effectively treating people nearer to where they live so they do not have to come into Kettering general hospital makes sense. It would be better for the patients, it would mean that they received more appropriate treatment closer to home, it would be more cost-effective and it would relieve pressure on Kettering general hospital. I therefore urge the Minister, with the contacts he has with NHS England, to pay close attention to the development of the STP in Northamptonshire, which is not good enough yet. It needs to place more emphasis on primary care, urgent care centres and local facilities, as my hon. Friends the Members for Corby and for Wellingborough have both mentioned.

The A&E department at Kettering general hospital is under huge pressure, the bulk of which comes from the lack of bed space. Ninety-eight per cent. of people who present at Kettering A&E with minor injuries are seen within the target, while 96% of those who are not admitted to the hospital are seen within the four-hour target. However, somewhere between only 60% and 90% of those who require admission to the hospital are hitting the target. The problem is the number of beds occupied by people whose treatment has been completed but who have not yet been moved to rehabilitative or local social care.

There have been problems with that in Northamptonshire, which I have raised before on the Floor of the House. However, I am pleased to say that I understand that closer co-operation between the hospital and the local county council is likely to mean that the better care funds allocated by the Government will be used more effectively, so that people can be moved more quickly out of the hospital and into more appropriate care in their local communities. This is an urgent priority, but I understand that we are about to see some rapid improvement.

Having said that, even if Kettering general hospital does everything right, I have to tell the Minister that I am being told that it has a structural deficit of £10 million a year. That means that even if it does everything right and meets all the targets that the Government set, the way in which the health service is structured in Northamptonshire means that it can do no better every year than to have a deficit of £10 million. In 2015-16 the deficit was £11 million and in 2016-17 it was £25 million. This year it is likely to be £20 million, so things have clearly not worked as they should have, but I have to tell the Minister directly that even if everything worked right, there would be a structural deficit of £10 million, which is clearly not sustainable. That needs to be looked at.

There has recently been a problem with referral to treatment targets. In the past, waiting list data have not been recorded correctly at the hospital. Everyone is agreed about that, and I am pleased that the Care Quality Commission is investigating and has referred the matter to NHS Protect. I think everyone agrees that the data are now being collected correctly, but historically they have been inaccurate, and patients may have been harmed as a result. I therefore ask the Minister directly whether he is satisfied that the issue is being investigated appropriately and that the investigation will be concluded as speedily as possible, so that local people can get to the bottom of what has been a historical problem.

Kettering general hospital is perhaps the most important facility to local people in Kettering. I know that it is important to my hon. Friends the Members for Wellingborough and for Corby as well, and we will not let any opportunity go by in this place without reminding Her Majesty’s Government how important the hospital is to local people. All is not well with the hospital, and these things can be put right. There has been a problem of the chief executive changing too often. We have lost some good people and replacements have not stayed for too long. The Minister has met Fiona Wise, the acting interim chief executive, but she will not be there for too much longer, because a more permanent replacement is being sought. There have also been leadership issues at the hospital in the past, which we need to tackle. The chairman, Graham Foster, is doing his level best—I commend him for his efforts—and there is tremendous team spirit at the hospital. It got extremely good marks in the CQC inspection for the quality of the care that all staff provide to local patients.

All is not well, however, and we need the Minister’s continuing attention to ensure that we can address the issues involved. In particular, will he urge NHS Improvement to prioritise its analysis of the urgent care hub proposals? I understand that NHSI, which used to be called Monitor, has now approved the funding for the preparation of the business case for the hub. That is likely to be submitted to NHSI in September, and I hope that it will be at the top of its in-tray so that we can get a move on with a project that everyone—the Government, the hospital, the patients and the CCG—agrees is the key development that needs to take place if we are to continue the distinguished history of a hospital that has been going for 120 years.