Along with the rest of the NHS, we received and read Lord Darzi’s report recently with interest.
Two key points were of greatest interest to us as we continue the preparations to open the first NHS National Rehabilitation Centre – the impact better NHS care can have on helping people return to work after illness or injury, and how imperative it is that we embrace and implement technology in healthcare settings to increase efficiency.
The former is one of the guiding principles of the National Rehabilitation Centre and our longer term ambitions to change the process of rehabilitation in England. We know rehabilitation is cost effective which ever way you look at it. The £37,000 it will cost the NHS for each patient at the NRC to receive eight to 12 weeks of intensive rehabilitation will save £500,000 in health and social care costs for the rest of that individual’s lifetime.
The 700 patients who will be treated each year at the NRC will deliver £3.3billion of benefits to ongoing health and social care. Return to work rates after a significant illness and injury lag behind our peers in Europe, with national data showing that after a major trauma event, only 35% of people return to work within six months.
Six months is a relatively short amount of time when it comes to recovering from a life-changing illness or injury, and currently rehabilitation only really begins once a patient is medically stable. At the NRC, we will be receiving patients much earlier in their recovery journey and establishing a focus on returning to an independent life at home, and potentially back to work, much sooner than at present. To do this, we are developing the skills and mix of professions at the NRC so that we can accept more clinically-dependent patients such as tracheostomy patients.
We are also committing to working with employers and support services in the community to help our patients at the NRC return to work again as soon as possible, and we are employing a dedicated Vocational Occupational Therapist who will be the expert on this topic. Each bedroom at the NRC will also have the digital infrastructure to enable patients to begin working remotely where possible and when they are ready.
The second point in Darzi’s report of special interest to us – embracing technology – we also have well in hand. You will have seen in the news that digital trials are taking place at NUH’s current neuro-rehabilitation facility Linden Lodge, to help us to identify which technology would be most effective in the new National Rehabilitation Centre when it opens next summer.
These trials include asset-tracking to help staff find equipment more quickly, and voice-activated environmental controls to support patient independence. Both of these result in greater efficiency by freeing up clinicians and staff to focus on providing patients with clinical support.
One of the other key trials is the installation of intelligent patient terminals (which look like iPads) which can guide patients through additional rehabilitation exercises via games and other apps, thus increasing their time spent each day actively rehabilitating when they are not in a booked session with a health professional. By using technology to enable more intensive rehab, this has the additional aim of speeding up their recovery and resulting in better outcomes so that they can return to their independent life sooner, which also means less time spent in an in-patient facility, and allows us to provide more patients each year with rehabilitation support.
We are hopeful that Lord Darzi’s report will signal positive changes within the NHS, leading to positive outcomes for all our patients in the long term.
In the shorter term, we are pleased to be ahead of the curve and look forward to being an example of what can be achieved through the use of technology in a healthcare setting, and the life-changing impact of supporting people back to work and the independence and sense of purpose that can bring with it.