The combination of state-of-the-art facilities with tranquil surroundings (including therapy gardens) will enable patients to recover and recuperate both physically and mentally and achieve excellent outcomes.
The design of the NRC buildings and the wider environment will fully support clinical rehabilitation, and feedback from both patients and staff has been reflected in the plans for the building.
It will also broaden opportunities for effective on-site research and innovation, education and training.
The architects and hospital planners working with the NRC have drawn on best practice from international rehabilitation facilities, and have also applied the experience and learning from the design and build of the Defence facility.
The design for the NRC includes wide areas of circulation space inside the buildings for ease of manoeuvre in a wheelchair and to promote socialisation, helping patients feel less isolated. The building is designed to promote independence and encourage patients to do as much as they can for themselves. Attending the dining room for meals for example, and self-caring where possible.
There is a large gym, set up as a multi-purpose space that can be used for individual treatments, group sessions and games, and smaller gyms for use by patients who require a quieter, less stimulating treatment space. There are also a number of individual treatment and clinic rooms.
Patient accommodation is arranged across three wards: two neuro wards (including a high acuity area) and one trauma ward designed for major trauma, orthopaedic, spinal and other patients, including surgically deconditioned and traumatic amputees.
Each ward comprises several single en-suite rooms as well as some larger four-bed bays to provide flexibility for the different types of care needed by patients. All bedrooms have south facing views over the estate.
The building design also includes four family rooms with en-suites and two rehabilitation flats (where patients and their families can experience living independently prior to discharge).
The pioneering robotics suite features cutting-edge technology from across Europe, including robots and devices which can be used when helping patients to walk again, relearn how to use their hands, and build function in specific parts of their body.
We have introduced an innovative clinical model at the NRC which enables our highly-trained staff to be able to begin rehabilitation earlier in a patient’s journey, as well as delivering more intensive treatments during their stay with us.
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The NRC includes two rehabilitation flats which give patients and their close family members who will be living with them the opportunity to practice living independently before they go home, whilst still having our staff on hand if needed.
We have a two-bedroom flat with living area/kitchen and bathroom, and a one-bedroom flat with living area/kitchen, bathroom and a tracking hoist which moves throughout the apartment.
Each flat also has its own clothes washing facilities to promote additional independence, and the flats are located in a quieter part of the building to futher simulate being away from the NRC for the first time.
The NRC, an NHS rehabilitation centre for NHS patients, shares the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate with the established Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC).
The two buildings were designed together so that expensive facilities were not duplicated, such as hydrotherapy pools.
Therefore, with support from their clinicians, patients attending the NRC will be able to use some of the DMRC facilities.
Patients at the NRC will have access to the 365-acre countryside Stanford Hall Estate. This includes a 5km trim trail, a hand-cycle track, a fishing lake, and a pitch and put golf course.
The Estate is a rehabilitation asset in itself and every bit as important as the buildings in the overall effort to return people to health and fitness. In addition, each patient bedroom has unobscured views across the estate.