Draft - Hand Therapy and Upper Limb Integrated Therapy Team

The Hand Therapy Team require an Orthopaedic Consultant referral. 

The service operates Monday to Friday, 8.00 am to 4.00 pm, excluding Bank Holidays. 

The Team are based in two locations:

Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital - Therapy Department, Level 1. 

Burnley General Teaching Hospital - Therapy Department, Level 1, Area 7.

The Team provides individual treatment sessions, run a Hand Therapy Rehabilitation Group, run an Osteoarthritis Group and offer a bespoke splinting service. In addition to these services, the Team also provides Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Management.

The Team consists of 5 Senior Therapists including the Clinical Service Lead and Team Lead plus junior therapists and support staff. 

Within the Team you will find:

  Physiotherapists (PT)

A physiotherapist will help you to improve your movement,  manage pain, and recover from injuries or illnesses affecting  your physical function.

  Occupational Therapists (OT) 

Work with you to identify things that make it hard for you to do what you want to do in life. These could include physical difficulties or problems with memory and thinking, vision, or sensation, and problems such as anxiety. They will work with you to practice and develop your skills and confidence.

  Assistant Practitioners 
Work alongside our Therapy Team to assist in the delIvery of services supporting clinicians, Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists. 

Hand Therapy, Level 1, Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital 

Tel No: 01254 734119 

E-mail: therapies.acutepathway@.elht.nhs.uk

The Hand Therapy Team receives referrals from consultants for individuals who have suffered an injury or who have had surgery to their hand.  They treat conditions such as tendon repairs, hand and wrist fractures, soft tissue sprains and Dupuytren’s disease to name a few. There are clinics on both the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General Hospital sites. 

Hand Therapy is the application of specialised knowledge and skills in the assessment and treatment of the upper limb. The goal of therapy is to prevent deterioration and restore maximum function to the hand.  Hand Therapy is for patients who have been affected by trauma, disease, repetitive motion disorders and progressive conditions affecting the joints, tendons and nerves. Hand therapists are Occupational Therapists or Physiotherapists who, through advanced study, specialise in rehabilitating patients with conditions affecting the hand and upper limb.  

A hand therapy assessment may include reviewing the wound and scar condition, swelling (oedema), range of movement, strength, hand function, sensibility (how your skin perceives or recognizes touch and temperature) and pain. The practitioners also consider the psychological, emotional, employment and social implications of every injury. Treatment will always be tailored to the individual’s unique set of circumstances. 

Hand therapy treatment may include protection of healing fractures or soft tissues, wound management, scar management, oedema control, pain control, sensory re-education, exercises to increase range of movement and strengthening of the hand. In their treatment they use computerised activities, patient education and equipment for activities of daily living and make bespoke/custom-made splints. 

Splints may be used for the purposes of immobilisation to protect the hand following surgery, support and rest, correct positioning, mobilising joints, control and correction of deforming forces and compensation for absent or weak muscle power e.g. as a result of nerve damage. 

The team also make functional fracture braces. These thermoplastic braces are moulded to support the bone fracture (e.g. fractured humerus - arm) whilst allowing movement at the adjacent joints.  

Through a different referral pathway, the therapists in this team may be requested to provide a bespoke splint as part of another clinician’s therapy intervention when off the shelf splint splints are not suitable. The Team also accepts referrals for those diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome from the ELHT Pain Management Service.