Exeter involved in new centre offering specialist rehabilitation to hundreds of patients every year 

The country’s first NHS National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), which aims to transform national and international research and innovation for specialist rehabilitation, is preparing to open its doors to its first patients.  

The NRC is based on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate, near Loughborough, and will be supported in its ambitions by an Academic Network of 26 universities from across the country, including the University of Exeter.

Professor Sallie Lamb, Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Exeter, said: “At Exeter we have a strong focus around rehabilitation research, working with our NHS partners to help people maintain mobility throughout their lives. This work has been strengthened through being a core theme of our NIHR Exeter Biomedical Research Centre, designed to translate this research into patient benefit as swiftly as possible. We’re excited to work with the National Rehabilitation Centre, which will further progress this really important priority for patients across the UK.”

The NRC is a 70-bed specialist rehabilitation centre for NHS patients who have experienced life-changing illness or injury and will be run and staffed by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH). The NRC shares the same estate as the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre and some key facilities such as a hydrotherapy suite will be shared across the two sites.

The NRC’s ambition is to become a world-leading national centre of excellence for rehabilitation, and to do this it will focus on three main areas:   

• Specialist rehabilitation 
• Research and innovation 
• Training and education

Following traumatic injury, long-term illness or surgery, many patients can be discharged straight home from hospital with appropriate and effective support from local community services.  However, for those with particularly complex needs, a period of specialist inpatient rehabilitation is needed to considerably improve their recovery.  

The NRC will take up to 750 of these NHS patients each year through intense rehabilitation programmes to help significantly increase their chances of returning to work, and an independent life. To support this, the new building features individual treatment and clinic rooms, four gyms and patient accommodation arranged across three zones, all set in tranquil parkland surroundings. 

Research and innovation, and education and training, which will drive forward the national provision of rehabilitation, will be delivered through the NRC Academic Network. The initiative is led by NUH and includes the University of Exeter – supported by the NIHR Exeter Biomedical Research Centre – along with 25 other universities from across the country, meaning hundreds of educators and researchers will be able to work with – and learn from – each other, in order to co-ordinate an overall approach to rehabilitation research. The intention is to also develop a national network for rehabilitation research, data, information and analytics.

The NRC Academic Network will operate through a collaborative model, with the NRC coordinating research and education activities across a network of leading universities and clinical partners throughout the UK. This national approach will accelerate the translation of research into practice, ensuring patients benefit from the latest advances wherever they are treated.

Miriam Duffy, NUH’s Director for the NRC, said: “The NRC has become NUH’s fourth site and has been nearly ten years in the making. To see it finally open is a testament to the hard work and dedication of so many people.

“We have huge ambitions for the NRC and believe it will help transform specialist rehabilitation as we currently know it, not only in the way that the rehabilitation is provided, but also through ground-breaking research and training.

“At its core, the NRC is about transforming outcomes for people who have suffered potentially life-changing injury, trauma or illness – and making sure that they can regain a quality of life equivalent to or as close as possible to their life prior to injury or illness.”

Miriam added: “I want to thank the Black Stork Charity, as construction of the NRC was only made possible because of the Charity’s generosity, through leasing the land to NUH and by significantly enabling the project. The Government’s New Hospital Programme also provided the capital.”  

An online directory, that highlights the breadth of rehabilitation education and training offered by the NRC’s academic partners, has also been created, 

The directory is aimed at healthcare professionals as well as a range of other professions that will help the NRC lead the way in rehabilitation services.  These include engineers/bioengineers, computer scientists, smart materials experts, research methodologists, health economists, medical statisticians, sport scientists, personal trainers, psychologists, and many others.

Miriam added: “We want to educate and train a highly skilled rehabilitation workforce, whilst also creating a strong learning environment and culture. This will help to deliver tangible improvements in service provision and patient outcomes as a result.”