The Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease

A look inside the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease | Leeds Hospitals Charity Video Transcript

Hello, I’m Claire Lang, I’m a motor neurone disease specialist nurse and care centre co-ordinator here at the MND team.

I would love to show you around the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease.

Follow me. This is the atrium. This is our main central area. As you can see, it’s really big, it’s really open. There are lots of different seating options here. People with motor neurone disease have different levels of ability, and so we’ve taken that into consideration and made sure that there’s a seating option for everyone who will be attending the clinic.

Let me show you some more. This is our family room. This is a really special space for us because we didn’t have this space previously. And this was absolutely pivotal to the design of the centre. It was something that Rob and Lindsey wanted in the centre for us to have a family space. As a service, as a team, we look after the whole family. Another special use of this room will be memory making. Which again, Sam, our family support worker will do. Memory making is a really important part of the MND journey and we want to give our families the opportunity to do that. We’ve not had the space to do it previously and now we’ve got this lovely space where we can do that.

Follow me, I’ll show you some more. Let me show you our changing places room. Nice big doors for wheelchair access. Come on in. This is fantastic. The size of the room is just brilliant. A lot of our MND patients have powered wheelchairs, which are large and have a large turning space. There’s so much room in here, it’s absolutely fabulous. And I think what this room provides is dignity for our patients and our families. It means that they can come and enjoy this space without the worry of.

“What if I need to use the bathroom?”
“How am I going to manage?”

So next I’m going to show you our therapy room. Just look at this space. It’s absolutely fantastic. Loads of windows, loads of glass, loads of light. Really lovely and sunny, even on a miserable day like this. We’ve got lots of new equipment that we’ve been able to purchase because of the Leeds Hospitals Charity.

Here, we’ve got another kitchen which our occupational therapist will be able to use to help people with their daily activities, such as eating and drinking. Again, through the charity, we’ve got equipment such as neater eaters. We have various pieces of equipment such as neck collars. In this space we’ll also have pieces of equipment for mobility such as walking frames, and powered wheelchairs that people can look at and try whilst they’re in clinic.

Next, I’m going to walk you through the atrium over to the consulting rooms.

Follow me. On the other side of the atrium is our clinical space. This is where we’ll have clinic. Let me show you a consulting room. Nice big, wide corridors. There’s enough space for two powered wheelchairs to be side by side.

And this is a consulting room. Again, lovely big doors for wheelchair access. Lots of light. Again, nice, bright, airy room. Big turning space for a wheelchair. Lots of space for families to come. These are one of my favourite things. Gorgeous window seats that we can sit on in the consultation. It should be nice and relaxed for everyone that’s using this room. We’ve got doors at either end of the corridor. If someone’s been in a consultation and wants to leave the centre, then they can do that with dignity and privately without having to go through the main atrium.
 
Follow me. We’ve got nine consulting rooms in the centre. That means that all of our team have got a space to see patients and families. And then here we have a quiet room. This is really important as well for patients and their families that they have a nice quiet, non-clinical space where they can just come and have some quiet space, be reflective. It may be that they just need some time to themselves after a clinic appointment before they leave the centre and go home.
This whole floor is our staff floor. We have shower and toilet facilities, changing spaces and a big lovely open plan office.

Everything in this building has been considered with MND patients and families in mind, even down to the artwork. And here we’ve got some gorgeous photographs which have been taken by Ken Blackburn, who’s a gentleman who lives with motor neurone disease.

And here we can see above the atrium, which is absolutely stunning. It combines the two spaces from the staff space to the patient and family space. It means that we’re all connected and we’re all one, which is absolutely lovely.
And here we’ve got a seminar room, which, again, we’ve not had before. And this gives us so many opportunities now to invite other professionals in and for us to provide educational events.

Let me take you back downstairs. Thank you for joining me on this tour of the Rob Burrow Centre for MND. This is just the start for us. We now want to concentrate on our education and on our research. Research is going to start happening now for the first time in Leeds, which is really, really exciting. And this is all with thanks to all of you out there that have made this dream a reality. Thank you so much.