'Wear your masks' to KGH appointments, urges Kettering hospital chief

People have been turning up to the hospital without masks
Kettering General Hospital Chief Executive Deborah NeedhamKettering General Hospital Chief Executive Deborah Needham
Kettering General Hospital Chief Executive Deborah Needham

Kettering General Hospital's boss is urging local people who visit departments to maintain their vigilance in wearing masks.

Hospital staff have recently noticed more people forgetting to wear masks, and needing to be reminded, while attending hospital.

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Visitors have also been asked to stay out of the hospital unless strictly necessary.

Chief executive Deborah Needham said: “We understand that many people are weary of living under lockdown restrictions but we must all maintain our vigilance at this critical time.

“A lot of progress has been made in controlling the virus in Northamptonshire and at KGH we have seen a very welcome reduction in the number of people with Covid needing hospital treatment.

“This is the result of a lot of local people following the rules, wearing masks, maintaining their social distance and reducing the number of interactions they have with others to the minimum. I applaud everyone who continues to do the right thing.

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“Maintaining this discipline, in combination with the fantastic vaccination programme, is helping to make our county a safer place day-by-day and we are now getting close to the point where some restrictions will be eased.

“But we are seeing people who are not adhering to the national policy; hands, face, space and are having to be reminded by our staff of the need to wear masks and maintain social distance.

“Clearly we have done an enormous amount of work to save lives and keep people safe on the hospital site.

"I would urge everyone who comes to hospital to remain vigilant and enable our teams to concentrate on delivering patient care.”

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Those who need to attend hospital have been given a guide how to help including:

• Only going to A&E where this is absolutely necessary and using alternatives such as GP telephone appointments, pharmacies, Corby Urgent Care Centre or NHS 111.

• Don’t unnecessarily accompany someone to hospital unless your presence is vital for their safety. There are a limited socially distanced waiting facilities and these must not become unnecessarily crowded

• Attend appointments on time - but not too much before time - to avoid crowding waiting areas

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Deborah added: “Everyone knows the messages of hands, face, and space now and we all just need to stick to those common sense precautions to protect ourselves and our families.

“When you visit our hospital, I would like you to think about protecting hospital staff and all of the vulnerable patients who they are supporting.

“I am very supportive of our staff stopping and asking people to adhere to our policy at any time whilst on our hospital sites.”

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