Wheelchair rugby star welcomes rehab hospital

A Paralympian has welcomed plans for a new rehabilitation hospital at a site regarded as the birthplace of the Paralympic movement.

Wheelchair rugby star Steve Brown was treated at Stoke Mandeville Hospital after breaking his neck in 2005.

The private facility is being developed at Stoke Mandeville Stadium, next to the world-famous NHS hospital.

Brown said the site had been "pivotal in my rehabilitation" and the new hospital would provide a unique level of support.

The Stoke Mandeville Games, founded by Prof Sir Ludwig Guttmann in 1948, helped launch the Paralympic movement, attracting its first international competitors in 1952.

The event remained at Stoke Mandeville until 1960, when Rome hosted it alongside the Olympics and it became known as the Paralympic Games.

Steve Brown was treated at Stoke Mandeville and introduced to wheelchair rugby at the hospital by the WheelPower charity.

He said: "WheelPower actually saw the potential in me and provided me with some funding for my wheelchair that I ended up taking to London 2012 when I was captain.

"This place has been pivotal in my rehabilitation and is going to be something where patients and their families are going to feel supported in a way that doesn't happen anywhere else."

The 52-bed hospital will include robotic gait and arm training, virtual reality balance systems and AI-enabled flats where patients will be able to practise daily activities before returning home.

Keith Browner, CEO of Active Care Group which will run the facility, said: "It's on the footsteps of the Stoke Mandeville Hospital, approximately 50 yards away.

"We have around 4,500 new spinal injuries every year and the lack of provision of beds is significant.

"We run a number of similar services around the country, all of which have quite significant demand and we anticipate this to be no different."

The Stadium is owned by the WheelPower charity and its chairman, Rob Wilson, said: "This is a site with a lot of history and it's a really important site for the local community but it's also of national significance as well.

"We believe that having a world-class hospital on the site is going to make a massive difference not just nationally but also to local people."

The hospital, which will take private and NHS patients, is expected to open next summer.

While the involvement of private companies in the provision of NHS care has been controversial, four out of the five main parties agreed some input from the private sector helped to ease pressure on the NHS.

Only the Green Party believes private companies should have no role in NHS care.

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