PARKWOOD LEISURE AND PARTNERS LAUNCH MUSCULOSKELETAL REHABILITATION PROGRAMMES TO HELP IMPROVE ACCESS TO CARE IN THE COMMUNITY

• The initiative is part of a two-year research project investigating how to transform leisure facilities into musculoskeletal hubs 
• The wider project has received £1.4m funding from UK Research and Innovation as part of the Healthy Ageing Challenge

Thursday 22nd June 2023 – Parkwood Leisure, one of the UK’s leading leisure facilities operators, and their partners Legacy Leisure and Lex Leisure, have launched two new exercise-based rehabilitation programmes at 24 leisure centres across England and Wales.

The launch is part of a two-year research project, led by a health and fitness consortium comprising Good Boost, ukactive, Orthopaedic Research UK, ESCAPE-pain and Arthritis Action. The project aims to investigate how to transform leisure facilities into musculoskeletal (MSK) hubs which can be accessed in every community. 

Over 20 million people in the UK suffer from an MSK condition, which accounts for the third largest area of NHS spend at £5bn annually. The consortium aims to design a system-based approach to better integrate leisure facilities within the nation’s healthcare infrastructure, turning them into a locally accessible network of community ‘MSK hubs’.

The aim is to reduce health inequalities and the burden on the NHS by providing local, supported, self-management options for people to better maintain mobility, physical function and reduce pain through exercise.

The two programmes available are:

• Good Boost: An aqua and land-based exercise rehabilitation programme that uses A.I. technology to assess individual conditions and create tailored exercise programmes. These sessions are delivered as group sessions to aid social support, whilst enabling individuals to benefit from a personalised exercise plan.
• ESCAPE-pain: An educational and exercise-based rehabilitation programme, supported by Orthopaedic Research UK, that reduces chronic pain and improves physical and mental wellbeing.  

Selected sites are also running coffee mornings to support individuals living with arthritis. Hosted in partnership with UK charity Arthritis Action, the free sessions are open to anyone with the condition and provide advice on leading more active lives, pain management and other activities available at the centre.

Glen Hall, Managing Director of Parkwood Leisure, said: “We’re incredibly proud to be a part of this project and we believe that there is a huge opportunity for leisure facilities to improve access to healthcare provision and help ease the burden on the NHS. 

“Working with our partners, we strive to provide everyone within our local communities with the facilities and support needed to encourage healthy and active lifestyles; the launch of Good Boost, ESCAPE-pain and the Arthritis Action coffee mornings takes this even further, and we hope to expand the roll-out across even more sites in due course.” 

For further information, please visit the MSK hub information page on our website – https://www.leisurecentre.com/msk 

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