Paralysed woman says new rehabilitation centre will help others

Barbara Todd is a former neuroscientist and lecturer who became a paraplegic after a freak accident in 2001

A woman forced to plan her own rehabilitation when she was paralysed said a new £105m NHS facility would help others with serious injuries.

Work has started on the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), which will care for the most seriously ill and injured patients.

Barbara Todd became a paraplegic when someone "slammed" a door into her back in 2001.

She said the centre would help patients "reach their full potential".

Ms Todd said she was forced to rehabilitate herself due to a lack of support after the freak accident.

The former neuroscientist and lecturer said the new centre meant patients rehabilitating from similar injuries "won't have to do it alone".

The facility will look after patients from across the East Midlands who are recovering from a major trauma, including those who have suffered serious spinal, head and neurological injuries.

It will also help those who require rehabilitation after recovering from serious illnesses, including those who have needed long stays in hospital, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The £105 centre, run by the NHS, will take lessons from the nearby military facility

"If this had been there when I got my injury, I would've been ringing up asking if I could be treated there," Ms Todd said.

"I would've made excellent progress and reached my full potential.

"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."

The NRC will be built on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate, near Loughborough, which is already home to the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre.

The idea for the initiative was set in motion by the late 6th Duke of Westminster, Gerald Grosvenor, whose son Hugh visited the site on Wednesday to see how work was progressing on the new NHS centre, which received government approval last month.

The centre, which is near Nottinghamshire's border with Leicestershire, will be run by Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust when it opens in 2025, and employ 150 staff.

It will provide 70 new rehabilitation beds for the NHS.

The first tours of the construction site were held on Wednesday

Miriam Duffy, NRC programme director at the NHS trust, said: "There's a deficit in rehabilitation provision in this country, both in terms of the number of beds and in terms of who can access rehabilitation.

"Only 40% of people who need rehabilitation services actually have access. So there's a real gap.

"We've completely redesigned how we will deliver rehabilitation and we can increase the capacity to do that in the East Midlands.

"This will be the hub so that more rehab centres will develop across the country."

The Duke of Westminster's family has donated more than £100m to the rehabilitation centre initiative

Hugh Grosvenor, the 7th Duke of Westminster said: "This was [my father's] ambition and legacy that he was driving towards over 13 years.

"The real value in the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre was the sharing of knowledge.

"Defence medicine is particularly advanced and so being able to overlap that with the NHS is something that could have serious impact."