The information below provides details about the Centres of Excellence Awards and how you can get involved.
What are the Centres of Excellence Awards?
MDUK is working with neuromuscular centres across the UK to audit neuromuscular services. The audit is being overseen by MDUK’s Service Development Committee, chaired by Professor Deirdre Kelly, and an independent sub-committee of neuromuscular health professionals and people with lived experience of neuromuscular conditions, chaired by Dr Helen Roper, who recently retired from her position leading the Birmingham paediatric neuromuscular service.
The information provided by centres as part of the audit, such as the way services are organised and the ease with which people using the services can access them, will be rigorously assessed by a panel of multidisciplinary neuromuscular professionals. Where a neuromuscular centre is able to provide evidence that they meet the standards and criteria which they are assessed against during the audit, the centre will be recognised in the Centres of Excellence Awards.
How do I get involved?
If you are an adult living with a muscle-wasting condition or the parent/carer of a child or young person accessing neuromuscular services anywhere in the UK, we want to hear about your experiences. Please complete our online survey by 28th April 2023.
Why do MDUK carry out the Centres of Excellence Awards?
As the charity representing over 110,000 children and adults in the UK living with a neuromuscular condition, MDUK is dedicated to improving care and support for people living with these conditions. The Centres of Excellence Awards are one way in which we work towards achieving this aim.
The purpose of the Centres of Excellence Awards is to:
- Recognise centres that provide best practice specialist neuromuscular clinical care, and
- Provide a benchmark of neuromuscular services across all centres that take part in the audits, as well as details about neuromuscular services at individual centres. This will help individual neuromuscular centres make the case for NHS investment in their neuromuscular services.
Is this the first time that MDUK have audited neuromuscular centres for the Centres of Excellence Awards?
MDUK has carried out three audits of neuromuscular centres for the Centres of Excellence Awards. The first audit was run in 2012 and the programme then ran every three years until it was interrupted by the impact of COVID-19. The following 17 centres were awarded Centres of Excellence status by MDUK in 2018, when the audit was last conducted.
- Wessex Neurological Centre, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton (Adult Centre for Clinical Excellence)
- The Addenbrooke’s Neuromuscular Service, Cambridge (Adult and Paediatric Centre for Clinical Excellence)
- Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic NHS Trust, Oswestry (Adult and Paediatric Centre for Clinical Excellence)
- Dubowitz Neuromuscular Centre, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London (Paediatric Centre for Research and Clinical Excellence)
- The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London (Adult Centre for Research and Clinical Excellence)
- The John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre, Newcastle (Adult and Paediatric Centre for Research and Clinical Excellence)
- Oxford University Hospitals, Oxford (Adult and Paediatric Centre for Research and Clinical Excellence)
- The Walton Centre, Liverpool (Adult Centre for Clinical Excellence)
- Leeds Children’s Hospital NHS Trust (Paediatric Centre for Clinical Excellence)
- Alder Hey Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool (Paediatric Centre for Clinical Excellence)
- Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (Paediatric Centre for Clinical Excellence)
- Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (Paediatric Centre for Clinical Excellence)
- Evelina Children’s Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust, London (Paediatric Centre for Clinical Excellence)
- North Bristol NHS Trust, Bristol (Adult Centre for Clinical Excellence)
- Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester (Paediatric Centre for Clinical Excellence)
- Ryegate Centre, Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield (Paediatric Centre for Clinical Excellence)
- Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield (Adult Centre for Clinical Excellence)
Why was the neuromuscular centre that I attend not awarded previously?
The list of centres who were recognised in previous awards is not a full list of every good neuromuscular centre in the UK. Some centres chose not to take part in the audit previously and there are others that provide very good quality care to their patients but narrowly missed out on a few of the Centre of Excellence criteria. A full list of neuromuscular services across the UK can be found here.