National Rehabilitation Centre hosts Health Minister Edward Argar MP
13 August 2021
National Rehabilitation Centre hosts Health Minister Edward Argar MP
Visit to check progress and see the site on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate
Health Minister and MP for Charnwood, Edward Argar, has visited the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate to hear about the plans for the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) and see the proposed site with NRC Programme Director Miriam Duffy.
With plans to be open to patients by the Autumn of 2024, the NRC team are working very closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS to progress the project at pace.
Mr Argar was hosted and received an update briefing from Miriam Duffy, NRC Programme Director, and General Sir Timothy Granville-Chapman, Defence & National Rehabilitation Centre (DNRC) Programme Director.
The NRC is one of 48 hospitals that will be built by 2030, delivering state-of-the art healthcare facilities for patients and staff.
Minister for Health, Edward Argar, said:
“The new National Rehabilitation Centre will provide a state of the art facility for people who have experienced serious injuries, so they can receive expert care and rehabilitation, building on the huge success of the fantastic Defence establishment.
I look forward to working closely with the National Rehabilitation Centre team to see this new hospital built as quickly as possible, as part of our plans to deliver 48 hospitals by 2030, backed by an initial £3.7 billion investment.”
Miriam Duffy, NRC Programme Director, said:
“We have a unique opportunity with the National Rehabilitation Centre because of the circumstances of this special site on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate and the way in which the original idea started with the 6th Duke of Westminster. A combination of philanthropy, clarity on the need for better clinical rehabilitation services, hard work and collaboration has brought us to the point today where we are on the cusp of something really special. It was excellent to host the Minister and we value his support in taking forward the National Rehabilitation Centre.”
When complete, the NRC will combine three things under one roof: patient care, Research & Development (R&D), and training and education. It is envisaged that the NRC could be a national hub centre of excellence for clinical rehabilitation complemented, in time, by a network of regional rehabilitation centres following the successful model of the National Trauma Centre network which has been so effective at saving lives.
An outline business case (OBC) has been prepared and submitted to the NHS decision-making process. Successful approval of the OBC will be the next step in proceeding towards construction while refining further elements of the overall proposition. A decision is anticipated in the autumn.
While the NRC Programme involves far more than a building – spanning R&D, training and education and a wide-ranging number of initiatives to improve clinical rehabilitation delivery – the physical building will be constructed on a site 400m from the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC) which is operated by the MoD and began treating patients in 2018.
The NRC building will have 70 in-patient beds and include specialist gyms and treatment facilities. Patients will also have access to and benefit from sharing some facilities within the Defence establishment plus from the estate itself which includes trim trails and the natural characteristics of the landscape setting – which is the reason the estate was selected to be purchased to create both a Defence and an NHS specialist rehabilitation capability.
Mr Argar visited the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate on Friday 6 August 2021.
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Media contact:
Ben Copithorne or Richard Pia at Camargue on 020 7636 7366 / bcopithorne@camargue.uk / rpia@camargue.uk
Tiffany Jones, Director of Communications at NUH on 07812 269880 / tiffany.jones@nuh.nhs.uk
About the National Rehabilitation Centre and the DNRC programme:
The idea for a civilian (National Rehabilitation Centre) facility was fundamental to the concept of the DNRC programme from the outset.
Sharing expertise and facilities to mutual benefit between Defence medicine and the NHS is acknowledged to be a way to improve the quality of outcomes for people who have experienced serious injury and would benefit from sophisticated clinical rehabilitation.
Getting people back to a meaningful life and capability following serious injury is a major policy area in Government. It is acknowledged that return to work rates for people experiencing major trauma and serious injury in England lag behind rates achieved in other European countries as well as rates achieved in the Armed Forces.
There is planning permission for the National Rehabilitation Centre on a site 400m to the west of the Defence facility on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate.
The National Rehabilitation Centre programme is being led by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, the formal NHS sponsor.
This facility would be something entirely new – a place where patients, innovation, expertise and the physical space combine to push boundaries beyond that achieved in the field of clinical rehabilitation to date. It should be viewed as a start-up and a flagship project in technology terms in the NHS transformation programme now underway. The intention is that it will pave the way for similar clinical centres across NHS England.
Under one roof it will: treat patients; train and educate significant numbers of staff in this field; and integrate industry, research and innovation in rehab to discover new practical solutions for patients. It is also clear that there will be international dimensions to the work of the NRC.
In the October 2018 Budget, Government earmarked £70M to cover the construction cost of the patient care element – the other 2 elements of education and training and research and development will be sourced elsewhere.
Co-located and working together, the Defence facility and the NHS (National) facility would share expertise, drive up standards, progress valuable research and potentially enable the field of rehabilitation medicine to progress to a whole new level.
Key to the DNRC Programme ambition is that the whole would achieve far more than the sum of the parts.
Read the introduction to the National Rehabilitation Centre leaflet and find out more at www.thednrc.org.uk
The DNRC Programme is enabled by The Black Stork Charity
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Contacts for further information:
Ben Copithorne or Emily Barnes at Camargue on 020 7636 7366 or dnrc@camargue.uk