By Anna Whittaker, Local Democracy Reporter
A woman forced to plan her own rehabilitation when she was left paralysed in a freak work accident says the UK’s first National Rehabilitation Centre in Nottinghamshire will enable others with serious injuries to “reach their full potential”.
The pioneering £105 million centre will become the first of its kind in the country when it is completed at Stanford on Soar in Nottinghamshire.
Work has now started on the 70-bed facility, which aims to improve the lives of those who have been seriously injured or experienced debilitating illness.
Called the NHS National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), it will welcome its first patients at the start of 2025.
On October 4, the leaders behind the programme met with the Duke of Westminster, Hugh Grosvenor, whose family has contributed £100 million to the project, which includes the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre on the same site.
The centre will be run by Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH).
It will require around 150 members of staff – when asked about national shortages within the NHS, Nick Carver, chair of the NUH board said “staff will want to come and work in a facility like this”.
Barbara Todd, a former neuroscientist and lecturer who became paraplegic due to a spinal cord injury in 2001, also met leaders of the project.
Now a wheelchair user, she explained how she learned how to rehabilitate herself due to a lack of support.
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service about how she got the injury.
She said: “I was preparing to go into a lecture and I needed to do some photocopying.
“I was bending over the desk in the office and someone came through and slammed the edge of the door on my spine.
“I became paraplegic within three weeks and I had emergency surgery.
“I was transferred to a fantastic head injury unit in Bath. Then I had to go to a spinal cord injuries unit but it wasn’t successful for me so I discharged myself and planned my own rehabilitation programme.
“I went straight back to work. I found exercises I needed to do on the internet and I found a specialist hydrotherapy pool in Nottingham.
“After two years I went to the outpatients’ department at the Queen’s Medical Centre because I wanted to use a treadmill and I needed a hoist.”
Ms Todd explained how she offered her “experiences and knowledge” to the leaders behind the NRC.
She said: “If this had been there when I got my injury, I would’ve been ringing up asking if I could be treated there.
“I would’ve made excellent progress and reached my full potential.
“Psychologically I would’ve been prepared to go out in the world and not had to do it myself.
“You just have to get on with life, you can’t sit down.
“I was very motivated because I needed to get back to work. It wasn’t a question of how difficult it was.
“It’s nice for patients that they won’t have to do it on their own. They will reach their full potential so they can go back to work or contribute to their family.
“Patients also have families who have got to be rehabilitated too.”
Miriam Duffy, the National Rehabilitation Centre’s Programme Director, said it was a “significant day” for the project.
She said: “We’ve worked towards this for seven years.
“We wouldn’t be here but for the Duke of Westminister and his initiative and foresight back in 2010.
“We do have staffing challenges and we are hoping that this will be a very exciting place to come and work.
“There will be just over 150 staff. Everybody will be employed through NUH. The opportunity will be to work here and other areas of the hospital so people get a rounded experience.
“At the moment we can take just over 100 patients through our rehab services a year, and the NRC will take between 700 and 750 a year, so a significant increase.”
The construction of the centre aims to be complete by the end of 2024, with patients accepted from early 2025.
The NRC is funded by a Government project called the New Hospitals Programme.
Nick Carver, chair of NUH, added: “This is such a fantastic development.
“It will transform rehabilitation care for patients regionally and in time, nationally.
“It’s really important when someone’s had a major traumatic event that they get intensive rehabilitation as soon as possible.
“This creates facilities which have never been seen within the NHS before.”
When asked about the staffing challenges nationally, he said: “If you look at the images of the NRC, you can see that staff will want to come and work in a facility like this.
“I think we will meet that challenge.”
On NUH’s existing problems in maternity and leadership, Mr Carver said: “We know that we still have work to do in maternity.
“We are delighted that the CQC has noted significant improvements but there is still more to do.
“We can’t stand still, we need to keep driving forward.”
