Old Tennis Balls Help Parkinson's Disease Patients At Nottingham Hospitals Trust

Main Category: Parkinson's Disease
Also Included In: Rehabilitation / Physical Therapy
Article Date: 16 Dec 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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Hundreds of patients in Nottingham are benefitting from an almost unlimited supply of free tennis balls to help with exercises to control the often debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's disease. The tennis balls are being donated by the Nottingham Tennis Centre after they were approached and asked to help by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust's physiotherapist, Sandy Gill.

Sandy, who is a member of the gym at the Nottingham Tennis Centre, noticed that tennis balls that were no longer 'bouncy' enough for tennis were being donated through a 'ball bin scheme'. She approached the Tennis Centre to see if they would consider donating them to NUH where they would be put to excellent use to help Parkinson's disease sufferers control the symptoms of their disease.

Patients suffering from Parkinson's disease often experience a stiffening of the fingers or a debilitating and uncontrollable tremor which makes simple everyday tasks - which most of us take for granted - such as dressing, eating and writing very difficult.

Physiotherapists at NUH use tennis balls in a series of exercises to help reduce hands stiffening and aid tremor reduction. Patients are encouraged to roll the tennis balls in the palm of their hands to keep fingers supple and to roll them along the table to stretch out their fingers and help increase manual dexterity and hand-eye co-ordination.

Sandy Gill said: "These simple exercises can play a beneficial role in helping Parkinson's patients retain their hand mobility, making every day tasks easier to perform.

"Having a guaranteed, regular supply of free tennis balls has enabled us to give our patients balls to take home with them so that they can practice their exercises at home. It means we can use and distribute them as needed rather than having to be prescriptive over their use.

"It is terrific that something so small can have such huge benefits for our patients."

Richard Joyner, manager at the Nottingham Tennis Centre, said: "At the Tennis Centre we get through a huge amount of tennis balls. Balls get to a point where they are no longer of good enough quality to use for the programme, so we set up a 'ball bin scheme' to donate to appropriate organisations.

"We are delighted that the physiotherapists have found a beneficial use for them with Parkinsons's disease sufferers, and look forward to continuing this partnership."

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust was named as a top-ranking teaching Trust in the UK in the 2008 'Good Hospital Guide' by health information specialist Dr Foster. The guide says that among the reasons for the Trust's success are that patients recover better than the national average after operations to replace previous hip and knee replacements and that the dedicated isolation facilities available at the Trust provide a good environment for patients with infectious diseases.

For the second year running, the Trust has also been highlighted as having one of the lowest 'standardised mortality rates' in the country. This means that patients in our hospitals are more likely to survive serious illness than in many other hospitals in the UK.

The full guide can be read here.

NUH is one of the largest Trusts in the UK, with an annual budget of more than £550 million. It was formed on 1 April 2006, when two top-rated trusts - Queen's Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital - merged in order to develop a range of high-quality, sustainable patient services across the two campuses.

As a major teaching Trust, NUH enjoys close links with the city's universities and attracts and develops the highest calibre of staff. It continues to be the hospital of choice for patients, encourage investment and remain at the forefront of research.

It has one of the busiest emergency departments in the UK and has a total of 1,664 hospital beds across both campuses.

www.nuh.nhs.uk