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‘Landmark’ agreement finalised for the country’s first NHS National Rehabilitation Centre to share facilities with Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre
- New £105 million NHS National Rehabilitation Centre will begin treating patients this November
- Pioneering MoU formalises rehabilitation sharing arrangements between Defence medicine and the NHS in a way never done before
- Benefits of sharing expertise and facilities will directly improve results for patients
- More intensive treatments will help more people to regain their ability following serious accident or illness
Plans have now been finalised to enable the nation’s first NHS National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), to share facilities and learning with the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC) – both located on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate (SHRE) near Loughborough.
This ‘landmark’ agreement will enable patients at the NRC to attend the DMRC facility to utilise their facilities such as their full hydrotherapy suite, an advanced gait lab and a high-tech virtual reality rehabilitation suite.
The sharing of facilities and learning across both sites has always been the plan for the groundbreaking rehabilitation estate, established by the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre (DNRC) Programme and facilitated by the Black Stork Charity. Therefore, the DMRC and the NRC were designed together so that expensive facilities, such as hydrotherapy pools, were not duplicated.
The two rehabilitation facilities on the SHRE stem from the initiative of the 6th Duke of Westminster in 2009 to replace the previous Defence rehabilitation facility, Headley Court, with a 21st century version. At the same time the then Defence Secretary (now Lord Browne) asked if the Duke ‘could do something for the nation too’. This he agreed to do, and the concept emerged of acquiring a Midlands estate to house both a new Headley Court and the first ever NHS equivalent with appropriate ‘sharing’ being key to the concept.
The partnership also opens the door for staff across both sites to share vital learning in order to advance clinical rehabilitation understanding on a Defence, national and international basis.
The NRC is a 70-bed specialist rehabilitation centre for NHS patients who have experienced a life-changing illness or injury, and it will be run and staffed by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH).
The facilities that will be shared (which are 400m away and accessible by a connecting road across the estate) include:
· A Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN) – one of just a handful in Europe, this is a dome which creates an almost 360 degrees immersive virtual reality experience, with a treadmill and hoist on a fully moveable platform to test a patient’s movement and balance. It also has integrated movement analysis, enabling clinicians to review the patient’s progress.
· An advanced gait lab – using technology, clinicians can observe and analyse in detail a patient’s gait, supporting them in determining a treatment plan.
· The full hydrotherapy suite, including a large swimming pool, a smaller hydrotherapy pool with fully adjustable depth, an underwater treadmill, and a therapeutic jacuzzi.
· The Radiology suite – including X-Ray and MRI machines, preventing any NRC patients requiring these scans from needing to be transferred back to NUH’s Queen’s Medical Centre.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Nick Carver, Chairman of NUH on behalf of the NRC and Air Vice-Marshal (AVM) Dave McLoughlin, Director of Defence Healthcare on the DMRC’s behalf.
Nick Carver said:
“It is an incredibly exciting moment and an important step in the journey to opening the NRC and improving rehabilitation on a national level.
“This landmark agreement has been many years in the making and therefore gives us the sense of being on the verge of something very special.
“By sharing knowledge, expertise and facilities between our two organisations, and between the NHS and the Defence, we can share the very best practice to benefit all our country’s citizens who need rehabilitation.”
AVM McLoughlin said:
“We were delighted to be able to sign the MOU which will allow us to share some of our excellent facilities for the benefit of NHS patients as well as our military personnel.
This is about the future of rehabilitation in this country, and I am delighted that the learning we have from Defence can be part of changing the lives of NHS patients and part of the national journey to improve rehabilitation for all.
“Working together with the NHS is important for the nation – the recent Defence medical review conducted by the government is keen that we work in a more integrated way with the NHS, and our work with the NRC is a demonstrable commitment to that way forward.”
The NRC will provide specialist rehabilitation for around 750 NHS patients each year, predominantly those referred from acute hospitals in the East Midlands. NHS patients include veterans once they have left the Armed Forces.
Louise Sandher-Jones MP, Minister for Veterans and People said:
“We are renewing the contract with the nation, and as part of that, we are prioritising the health and wellbeing of everyone - NHS patients and Armed Forces personnel alike.
“The opening of the National Rehabilitation centre is a transformative moment for the relationship between Defence and the NHS, and this partnership demonstrates how we can share both civilian and military healthcare expertise and facilities to deliver world-class healthcare for all.”