Nottinghamshire NHS rehab centre to create more than 150 jobs

Construction of the facility began in autumn 2023

More than 150 jobs will be created at a new NHS rehab centre.

The £105m National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) is being built on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate, in Rushcliffe, Nottinghamshire, which is already home to the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC).

It will help those who have suffered major trauma injury and illness, and will see its first patients in 2025.

The centre will create the equivalent of 150 full-time jobs.

The NHS centre will learn from the nearby military facility

The rehab centre will be run by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.

There will be 70 beds for patients from across Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, and Lincolnshire.

NHS patients will have access to the neighbouring facilities and expertise at the DMRC, which opened in 2018 and is run by the Ministry of Defence for armed forces personnel.

Miriam Duffy, director of the NRC, said jobs would be advertised in 2024

Miriam Duffy, director of the NRC, which is near Loughborough in Leicestershire, says there will be many career opportunities at the centre.

"In our workforce, we will need a mixture of medical grades including consultants, junior doctors and specialist nurses," she said.

"The therapy element includes physios, occupational therapists, dieticians, speech and language therapists and also psychologists and mental-health-trained occupational therapists."

She said many of the roles were expected to be advertised in 2024.

Ms Duffy added: "Rehabilitation encompasses many aspects of recovery from complex injuries - but also from a period of severe illness."

Rebecca Kenny wants the centre to improve the UK's rehab quality

Rebecca Kenny, who will be the lead nurse at the centre, says she hopes it will prove to be a blueprint for the rest of the UK.

"We know that our rehabilitation outcomes are not as successful [in the UK] as in other parts of the world. We are keen to provide rehab in a different way," she said.

Some staff will rotate between the new facility and Nottingham's two main NHS hospitals.

Ms Kenny said: "You don't have to have worked in rehabilitation before, we encourage people to [apply here] from all disciplines and backgrounds."

A new apprenticeship scheme has been developed in conjunction with Birmingham City University for rehabilitation assistant practitioners. The first group of students are being trained ready for the opening.