What we do
The Hand Therapy Team provides specialist hand therapy rehabilitation after injury or when suffering from a hand condition.
How to access the service
The Hand Therapy Team require an Orthopaedic Consultant referral.
Where to find us
Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital - Therapy Department, Level 1
Burnely General Teaching Hospital - Therapy Department, Level 1, Area 7
Service Lead/Ward Manager
Miriam Parkinson, Clinical Lead
Nicola Hook, Clinical Team Leader
Rebecca Hope, Clinical & Operational Service Lead Acute OT/Physio (Surgery)
Key Staff
Alison Taylor
Andrew Mathews
Jesicca Fearon
Julie Jenkinson
Louise Scarborough
Miriam Parkinson
Nicola Hook
General Enquiries
Hand Therapy
Level 1
Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital
01254 734119
Opening/Visiting Times
Monday to Friday, 8.00 am to 4.00 pm, excluding Bank Holidays
Additional Information
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. We have clinics on 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 recognises touch and temperature) and pain.
We 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 our treatment we use computerised activities, patient education, training 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.