Nuffield Health and Manchester Metropolitan University join forces to rewrite the future of chronic health management

Across the UK, an estimated 15 million people live with long-term health conditions, and 2.8 million are economically inactive due to long-term illness. With the Office for Budget Responsibility projecting a £30 billion rise in spending on sickness and disability benefits by 2029, there is an urgent need to explore new ways to support those with chronic conditions.

Despite the well-recognised benefits of physical activity, particularly for people with long-term health conditions, access to exercise-based support remains limited. Data from Nuffield Health’s Healthier Nation Index reveals that fewer than 20% of people with conditions such as osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, chronic back pain, or fibromyalgia have been recommended exercise-based support by their GP.

To address this pressing need, Nuffield Health and Manchester Met have announced a pioneering 3-year research partnership. This collaboration combines Nuffield Health’s expertise in community-based rehabilitation with Manchester Met’s leading research in sports and exercise medicine. The partnership will deliver a clinically assured, exercise-based approach to improving health outcomes for people living with a range of long-term conditions, which will be scaled to a national level by the end of 2027.

The partnership builds on existing research which demonstrates the significant role fitness professionals can play in managing health conditions. For instance, Nuffield Health runs a series of rehabilitation programmes for conditions including joint pain, long-COVID, and cardiac episodes. The Charity’s Joint Pain Programme, launched in 2019, has improved outcomes for over 31,000 people, reduced pressure on the NHS, and lowered sickness absence rates. In 2023 alone, the programme contributed over £86.5 million to the UK economy by helping participants return to good health and employment.

The new programme will take this approach further, offering a symptom-based approach that can cater to the growing burden of multimorbidity. The initial pilot will operate from a community hub in Platt Lane, Manchester – an area chosen to address health disparities linked to social inequality, enabling the programme to make a meaningful impact in an area with higher levels of deprivation. A key feature of the programme will focus on sustained engagement through a peer-mentoring model, fostering long-term behaviour change and a sense of community.

Central to the programme’s success will be the use of personal trainers. These highly qualified professionals are a huge, largely untapped workforce in the fitness and leisure sector for supporting chronic conditions. To ensure consistent, quality delivery, the partnership will establish sustainable training pathways for fitness professionals, providing a standardised approach to upskill them in delivering community-based rehabilitation.

Dr Davina Deniszczyc, Charity and Medical Director at Nuffield Health, said:

“This partnership will design, test, and deliver a symptom led rehabilitation model aligned with the government’s ambition to shift care safely and effectively from hospitals to the community.

“It highlights the vital extended scope fitness professionals can undertake, and the transformative potential of community-based programmes in managing long term conditions and multi morbidity, as a standard treatment pathway alongside traditional medicine.

“We see this programme not as a fitness intervention, but a medical intervention delivered in a fitness environment - evolving the traditional model of what we consider as ‘healthcare’.

“By combining Nuffield Health’s community-based expertise with Manchester Met’s world-class research, we can deliver academically robust, real-world solutions that can be quickly adopted and scaled nationally.”

Professor Tim Cable, Director of the Institute for Sport at Manchester Metropolitan University, added:

“Over 15 million people in the UK live with long-term health conditions, yet supported exercise - a proven and cost-effective management tool - remains underutilised. This partnership will not only further evidence the transformative role of movement but also provide a scalable, clinically governed blueprint for a national programme, that can be evaluated and refined through our research .”

At a time when the government is shaping its ten-year health and care plan, this partnership will demonstrate the potential of movement-based interventions to address key national priorities.

Dr Davina Deniszczyc added:

“Movement is a powerful tool - not just to improve individual health, but to reduce sickness absence, boost productivity, and support the government’s growth agenda.

“If the government is serious about shifting care out of hospitals and into the community, it must embrace new models of care that deliver interventions in local settings.

“As the ten-year plan takes shape, policymakers have a unique opportunity to make movement a cornerstone of a healthier, more resilient society.”

Last updated Wednesday 11 December 2024

First published on Wednesday 11 December 2024