NHS University Hospitals Dorset: Fundraising for robotic equipment

The second part of our series with University Hospitals Dorset has just been published on the Stroke Rehab Times.

Read part one here. 

In these articles, we are focusing on the UHD charity’s award-winning fundraising campaign in 2020 to purchase a Hocoma Lokomat for the Acute Stroke Unit at Royal Bournemouth Hospital. The Lokomat is a state-of-the-art electromechanical gait trainer, helping stroke patients learn how to walk again.

“In rehab we’ve got to be more ambitious. We’ll never progress or keep the profile of rehab high if we don’t pursue these opportunities.”

The charity recently celebrated the one year anniversary since the Lokomat was installed, and part two of this three-part series discusses how the fundraising team raised the money in record time for the NHS Acute Stroke Unit.

What advice would you give to others looking to fundraise for robotic equipment?

Karen Smith: “I’d say don’t be frightened by the amount of money, because £365,000 can be really daunting. You can use every income stream available to you to fundraise. If you’ve got a stroke fund within your department, you can caveat your campaign and say if we raise above the target, it will go to the stroke fund. In the same way, you can say your intention is to raise money for this equipment, but if we don’t reach the target, it will still go towards stroke rehabilitation.

And have clear messaging about the benefits of the equipment for patients and therapists. It might take two therapists to allow a patient to take 20-30 steps in a session, but using a Lokomat we can achieve hundreds if not thousands. This isn’t replacing therapy – it’s enhancing it and enabling patients to go so much further in their therapy.”

Dr Louise Johnson: “If it takes time to raise the money, that’s ok! The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll get there. If you procrastinate forever then we’ll never progress anything. “Get on with it” is what we say!”

Click here to read the full article. Part three coming soon!

About the Lokomat

The Lokomat is a robotic-assisted therapy device for highly intensive physiological gait rehabilitation for severely impaired patients.

The Lokomat uses an individually adjustable exoskeleton combined with dynamic body weight support, with adjustable hip and knee joint angles to tailor the device to a patient’s specific needs during training. Customisable and versatile, the Lokomat can train a wide range of patients to develop a healthy physiological gait pattern – even those with severe disabilities.

The Lokomat allows therapists to focus on delivering high-quality therapy for patients, rather than be limited by the strain of traditional gait therapy. It enhances staff efficiency and safety, which leads to higher training intensity, more treatments per therapist, and consistent, superior patient care.

The Lokomat was developed by Swiss rehabilitation technology company Hocoma, and is supplied in the UK by Summit Medical and Scientific.

Contact us

Get in touch with Summit Medical and Scientific today to find out more about incorporating state-of-the-art rehabilitation technology into your practice. Contact us via email at info@summitmedsci.co.uk or call 01372 3459863.

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