NIHR Programme Grant: 2008-2015

Cost-efficient service provision in neurorehabilitation: defining needs, costs and outcomes for people with long term neurological conditions

This was a 7-year research and development programme (2008-2015) funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) under its Programme Grants for Applied Health scheme (RP-PG-0407-10185).

The work centred on:

• the development of methodology to evaluate cost-efficiency of specialist rehabilitation in the context of real-life clinical practice.

• the development and validation of the clinical tools to collect this information.

It built on our previous applied health services research programmes to develop the tools and data to determine the diverse rehabilitation needs of patients with long term neurological conditions (LTNC) and to inform the development of a nationally co-ordinated approach to needs-led commissioning and provision of neurorehabilitation services.

Impact statement

The main output of the programme was the establishment of the UK Rehabilitation Outcomes Collaborative (UKROC) national clinical registry for specialist rehabilitation in England.

The registry now systematically collates patient level data on needs inputs and outcomes (including cost-efficiency) from all 75 specialist inpatient rehabilitation units in England.

The costing model and commissioning currency developed in this programme is still used by NHS England to pay for inpatient specialist rehabilitation.

The programme has demonstrated that specialist inpatient rehabilitation is one of the cost-efficient interventions in healthcare, with average life-time savings in the cost of ongoing care amounting to between £670K-1 million per patient in the course of their lifetime.

Final Report

A final programme grant report was submitted to the NIHR in 2015. The views expressed in the report are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the NHS.

• Final submitted programme grant report 2015

• Appendices

• Executive Summary