Rehabilitation gym helps speed up recovery at St Thomas' Hospital

A rehabilitation gym for amputees on a ward at St Thomas’ Hospital is helping speed up recovery and free beds.

(c) Guy’s and St Thomas’

(c) Guy’s and St Thomas’

Before the move, physiotherapists had to take each patient to the therapy gymnasium, which involved a 30-minute round trip across three wings of the hospital and two lifts. The space was used by multiple inpatient and outpatient teams so was unavailable at certain times, limiting the amount of time each patient had to spend there.

Matt Fuller, clinical lead physiotherapist for vascular surgery and amputee rehabilitation at Guy's and St Thomas', said: ‘We aim to provide gym-based exercise for our amputee patients every day of the week, but some people were missing out because they couldn't tolerate travelling across the hospital to get to the gymnasium.

‘By improving access to rehabilitation and reducing clinical risks by keeping patients on the ward, we're supporting faster functional recovery, improved patient experience with enhanced privacy, and a speedier discharge home.

‘Physiotherapists and occupational therapy teams are also working together in the new space to help improve the patient's independence, increasing the likelihood of them returning to their previous living arrangements and reducing reliance on social care teams.'

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