The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has shared its concept designs for the planned Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease.
The designs were presented to the former professional rugby league player, who revealed his Motor Neurone Disease (MND) diagnosis in 2019, and his family.
A courtyard garden, large and accessible rooms with lots of natural light, and shared spaces for patients and their families and carers to relax in around treatments, are all part of the plans for the centre – which will take Burrow’s name.
Manchester-based company Day Architects worked on the ideas for the new care centre – but patients, staff and the Burrow family were all consulted as part of the planning and design process, which has taken place over the past four months, as the vision for the building has developed.
The idea behind the centre is for the space to provide one location where patients can receive the care and support they need, and fundraising – led by the Leeds Hospitals Charity – is already under way for the project.
Lindsey Burrow told the trust, “We’re absolutely blown away by the designs that we have seen, it has certainly exceeded our expectations of what this centre could look like. For us, parking, accessibility and bright open spaces were the most important aspects, and it’s exciting to see that this centre will offer so much more. We’re really pleased.”
“The centre will provide one location where people can experience holistic and seamless care, where we come to them and support them in a comfortable and inspiring location away from the challenges of their condition,” adds Claire Lang, Specialist Lead Nurse for MND at the trust.
“We’re looking forward to the larger spaces that can accommodate wheelchairs and in seeing the possibilities that good technology can have on quality of life. Since this condition is relentlessly progressive, MND patients have complex changing needs and the new centre will be able to adapt to these.”
The next steps in the project are to include the announcement of a site, the finalisation of the clinical and building brief, and completion of fundraising, before the build can begin.
Craige Richardson, Director of Estates and Facilities at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, comments: “This is a fantastic project for Leeds Teaching Hospitals to be involved in and we’re thankful to the Burrow Family, to Leeds Hospitals Charity and many others, for spurring this on to make it happen.
“We’re investing the manpower and infrastructure to support the realisation of the new centre and envisage that it will be a flagship centre for care provision for the North that sits within our greater vision for care in Leeds, a great new building and service alongside The Building the Leeds Way project to build two new hospitals in Leeds.”
