Pioneering NHS National Rehabilitation Centre announces exciting collaboration with British Cycling and ICE Trikes to benefit patients during recovery and beyond
The country’s first NHS National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) has announced a major new collaboration with ICE Trikes and British Cycling , designed to enable patients with life-changing illness and injuries to discover a new sport and benefit their recovery journey.
As part of the collaboration, ICE Trikes has gifted three hand‑cycles and three adaptive trikes exclusively for patient use at the NRC. In addition, a dedicated British Cycling Rehabilitation Coach will be based at the centre, funded by the Peter Harrison Foundation and with the support of Nottingham Hospitals Charity. Recruitment to this newly created role will begin in the near future.
The NRC is a 70-bed, state-of-the-art specialist rehabilitation centre for NHS patients who have experienced a life-changing illness or injury and will be run and staffed by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH). It is situated on 365-acre rural estate where it will share facilities with the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC), including a bespoke accessible cycle track through a forest area of the estate.
Patients will be able to use the gifted hand‑cycles and trikes throughout the estate, including on a bespoke accessible cycle track that winds through woodland areas of the site. Cycling will form part of patients’ tailored rehabilitation programmes during their stay, which typically ranges from two weeks to three months.
Beyond the immediate rehabilitation benefits, this collaboration aims to help patients to discover an accessible sport that they can continue once they return home or into their communities. There is also long‑term ambition to identify and nurture natural talent, potentially supporting future pathways into competitive cycling, including para‑cycling and the ParalympicsGB programme.
The National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) is a £105million programme which will create a 70-bed, purpose-built and highly energy efficient new facility as part of the Government’s New Hospital Programme. The specialist NHS facility will be built on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate near Loughborough, home to the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre which opened in 2018. The NRC is due to open in 2026.
In addition to providing excellent patient care, the NRC will also be a national hub for innovation, cutting-edge research and development, and training and education. Therefore, the NRC has national network of 26 universities across the country to ensure that the NRC remains at the forefront of rehabilitation research and expertise.
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