Why are we doing this? - The Wessex Rehabilitation Centre
The Centre opened in 1956 and treats patients across Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset, the Isle of Wight and the Channel Isles and specialises in intensive rehabilitation following hand, arm and leg surgery, burns, chronic spinal pain and multiple injuries.
Sue Ford, Senior Nurse Manager at the Wessex Rehabilitation Centre says: "A key part of the work we do is rehabilitation for hand injuries that people have sustained at work or at home. We get around 90 per-cent of hand injury patients back to work, or back to a position where they can carry out the normal day-to-day domestic activities that many of us probably take for granted."
Mrs Ford added: "We work closely with employees, assessing the person's work area and activities, and advising them of what they will need to do in supporting people back to work. With an on-site daily living bungalow developed with the help of Salisbury League of Friends, staff can also assess the patient's ability to cope with day-to-day activities in the home."
Although the centre has a reputation for treating patients with hand injuries, it is also recognised for treating patients who have multiple injuries following accidents at home, at work or major road accidents. Around 32-34 new and existing patients are treated in the centre each week for a range of injuries. They can receive, on average, around four to six weeks of intensive rehabilitation treatment.
Mrs Ford said: "The key to our success has been the on-site facilities that we have at Salisbury District Hospital and the wide range of physiotherapy and occupational skills of our staff. We have an industrial therapy workshop at Salisbury District Hospital where rehabilitation involves the use of woodwork and engineering tasks as therapeutic activities."