Pictured: BBC cameras film physiotherapist Mobeen Janjua as he talks with a patient during the ESCAPE-pain class at Barbara Castle Way Health Centre in Blackburn
East Lancashire physiotherapists featured prominently when the BBC broadcast news of the new NHS Long Term Plan this week.
Key priorities for the 10-year plan include making sure everyone gets the best start in life, delivering world-class care for major health problems and supporting people to age well.
And when BBC News producers were looking for evidence of where joined-up hospital and community care is working well, they turned to Pennine Lancashire and, in particular, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust’s Integrated Musculoskeletal (Physiotherapy) Team.
A BBC News crew, led by Chief Health Correspondent Dominic Hughes, spent more than a day filming community physiotherapists and patients, including a visit to Barbara Castle Way Health Centre in Blackburn. It was there they met physiotherapists Mobeen Janjua and Sara Challenor at the weekly ESCAPE-Pain class.
“The ESCAPE-pain programme, run by ELHT with funding from the Academic Health Science Network for the North West Coast Innovation Agency, has become a real success story,” says Integrated MSK Service Manager, Stephen Hoyle.
“ESCAPE-pain is a rehabilitation programme for people with chronic joint pain, that integrates educational self-management and coping strategies with an exercise regimen individualised for each participant. It helps people understand their condition, teaches them simple things they can help themselves with, and takes them through a progressive exercise programme so they learn how to cope with pain better.
“Everyone taking part in the ESCAPE-pain class was surprised – but delighted – to see the film crew and couldn’t wait to see themselves on the telly.”
Also enjoying a starring role during several BBC News broadcasts was Physiotherapist Chris Barnes, filmed visiting a patient at home in the Pendle area of Lancashire.