On 10 March, Dorset LEP joined AECC University College in celebrating a major milestone in the development of a new integrated rehabilitation centre - a project supported by a £2.7 million Getting Building Fund award by the LEP.
The centre - a £4.5 million investment in facilities, works and specialist healthcare equipment – will form an important part of the university college’s clinical services for the community, aid recovery post-pandemic and accelerate healthcare innovations in Dorset and marks a significant investment in the future of the campus.
The new 754sqm building is the flagship project within a broader programme of developments which will also provide upgrades to other areas of the estate, develop new patient services, provide new jobs, and increase the number of students studying health degrees. AECC University College has been working closely with partners across the Dorset Integrated Care System, other public, voluntary and independent sector partners to developing a suite of new training courses in key areas to help fill local workforce gaps.
These new developments will provide a significant boost to the Bournemouth East community economy going forwards, ensuring that Boscombe is home to a specialist health sciences university and a recognised centre of excellence in clinical and rehabilitation education, care and research. The new rehabilitation centre will provide nine treatment rooms and a large multi-zoned physical rehabilitation space to help people get back to health and mobility after injury or illness.
Open to the public from September 2022, the university college will be able to offer an even broader range of clinical and rehabilitation services to their current services, which already include local community chiropractic treatment, specialist MRI, ultrasound, x-ray, physiotherapy, a breastfeeding clinic and first contact physiotherapy. The new centre will enable clinical services in physical and sport rehabilitation, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, dietetics, podiatry and more.
The new facilities will also support the delivery of new health sciences courses at AECC University College, providing much needed training placement capacity and give its students the chance to learn and practise in a multi-professional environment under expert supervision of practising clinicians.
Vice Chancellor of AECC University College, Professor Lesley Haig, said: “This is a state-of-the-art facility and a flagship development that will make AECC University College one of the national leaders in health sciences education and care – with its heart in the community of Boscombe. Through our facilities the community receives access to practising clinicians across a wide range of healthcare professions, and our students get to learn and practise with cutting-edge technology. This provides a truly inspiring environment in which to delivery excellent education, clinical care and applied research.
“We are supporting Boscombe, Bournemouth and Dorset healthcare providers, working closely with our Dorset CCG partners to help support the healthcare system and provide community diagnostics. With the NHS experiencing additional pressure with COVID-19, we are able to help fill those gaps that we know exist in the system. We have also listened to our partners and where their workforce gaps are. In response to this we have formed an integrated rehabilitation centre – part of that is the new building and also the new services that are being delivered already.
“In five years’ time, AECC University College will be a world-class educational facility in terms of both our equipment and services offered through our clinics and our Imaging Centre of Excellence. We will double our student numbers - this means we can help more students into jobs to help the NHS, but we can also help more people in the community to recover from injury and live better for longer. The university college is working with international partners to collaborate in research developments in rehabilitation sciences, helping to push forward the boundaries of healthcare delivery to optimise patient outcomes .”
The new multi-million-pound state of the art facilities were enabled by a £2.7 million Getting Building Fund grant funding allocation by Dorset LEP, with AECC University College providing additional funding towards the cost of the facilities and suite of courses and services that will be available to the community.
Dorset LEP secured £11.8 million of the government’s Getting Building Fund in 2020, set up in response to economic challenges of the pandemic. The new facility at the AECC University College is one of nine projects supported by Dorset LEP through this fund.
Nicola Newman, private sector Dorset LEP board member, said: “In allocating our Getting Building Fund, we were keen to identify projects that will aid recovery while also developing an uplift in Dorset’s skills provision and build on existing specialisms. Healthcare is the largest employment sector in our region and projected to continue to grow, yet there is a skills gap challenge in the future workforce, which this project helps to address.
“Dorset’s current population age demographic is indicative of the national picture in the next thirty years, making us a perfect test-bed for the rest of the county. This means innovative approaches to integrate community clinical services, while developing skills and talent for future healthcare provision, is especially important in Dorset. I’m delighted with the progress of this centre, which has the potential to significantly enhance the health and welfare of Dorset’s residents, particularly the local population in Boscombe and Bournemouth East.”
AECC University College, on Parkwood Road, Boscombe, works with the NHS and the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), private providers as well as providing a self-referral service for anyone needing support – from sports injury rehabilitation and alleviating back, neck and shoulder pain to helping older people recover normal mobility and function after a fall. The state-of-the-art facilities also includes an open upright MRI scanner, one of only six in the country, which is helpful for patients who have mobility issues or suffer with claustrophobia and therefore are unable to tolerate the tightly confined space experienced within a standard MRI scanner as they sit and stand, rather than lie inside a tightly confined space.
The University College is also currently developing its simulated education and training facilities, with the development of a digital skills innovation suite incorporating radiology and radiotherapy simulation, immersive virtual reality and high-fidelity mannequins and a digital skills training hub to support educational delivery.
AECC University College’s facilities are open for public utilisation and feature a cafe and bookable rooms for community use. We will provide a world-leading university and health care service which sits at the heart of the community. Across the next five years, AECC University College plans to double its student numbers and to provide more services, classes and courses to the community – including providing postgraduate courses for mature students who aren’t currently in a health care role and are wishing to take up a new career in health sciences. Such courses are to include speech and language therapy, occupational health, dietary and podiatry, which will commence in January 2023.
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Notes to editors:
Dorset LEP
Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership is a business led private and public sector partnership, promoting local economic growth and prosperity. Dorset LEP deliver projects that support and develop infrastructure, housing, skills, enterprise and business growth to achieve long-term economic benefit for all in Dorset.
For more information visit the Dorset LEP website http://www.dorsetlep.co.uk/
Getting Building Fund
On 4 August 2020, the government confirmed the list of over 300 successful projects which will receive a share of £900 million from the Getting Building Fund.
The full list of projects is available on GOV.UK.
The Getting Building Fund is investing in shovel-ready infrastructure projects to create jobs and support economic recovery across the country. Projects funded include:
- regeneration of town and city centres
- green infrastructure and clean energy
- transport and digital connectivity improvements
- unlocking of housing and business sites
- support for SMEs and learners.
The successful projects (over 300, nationally) are expected to deliver up to 85,000 jobs, over 1,500,000 sqm of commercial floor space, unlocking 45,000 homes, almost 1,000,000 sqm of public realm or green space improved or created, over 50,000 new learners assisted, and 65 million kgs of CO2 emissions saved.
All projects have been selected by Local Enterprise Partnerships and Mayoral Combined Authorities in each area and endorsed by the Housing Secretary.
AECC University College
AECC University College is a specialist health science HE provider, which opened in 1965. For more than 50 years it has been at the forefront of musculoskeletal health and wellbeing, including in the fields of chiropractic, radiology, rehabilitation, sport and psychology. The University College transforms lives through health sciences, education and research. It is a centre of excellence for medical ultrasound education and hosts a range of onsite diagnostic imaging services providing support to the NHS and other healthcare providers, the local community and its own onsite clinic. It was the first chiropractic college in Europe and pre-pandemic its onsite clinic had over 45,000 clinic visits a year. It was granted Taught Degree Awarding Powers and University College status in 2017. Discover more at aecc.ac.uk