PATIENTS travel from as fas as Oxford to use the "unique" physiotherapy services at Salisbury District Hospital.

In the last feature exploring Salisbury’s hospital, the Journal had a tour of the Wessex Rehabilitation Centre this week to learn the specialist care and facilities the team of psychologists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists provide.

Open for more than 30 years, the centre at present focusses on hand and upper limb injuries, lower limb injuries, and offers patients with chronic long-term back and neck pains a pain management program.

And the centre includes a gym, a craft workshop and an industrial workshop, to not only offer tailored exercises but give patients the opportunity to take part in arts and crafts, woodwork, gardening and more.

"The rehab centre is designed for people who have long term or major injuries that need more input than a standard physio service can provide," explained Hamish Cameron, senior physiotherapist at the centre.

"[It is a] more intensive approach, we're a bit more specialist, we can spend a bit more time with patients and have a bit more to offer them."

Occupational therapist Katie Riley added: "Patients are usually quite surprised with what we can do, we're a very unique service here."

Speaking about the activities on offer, Katie said they are designed to improve a patient's strength, movement and confidence, adding: "It really inspires people and it makes everything a bit more interesting, using it is a distraction is a great tool in terms of getting the most out of people - some people need that extra activity to maximise their potential.

"[Activities] can really help people with anxiety or mental health problems rooted to their injuries, it can be daunting when you've had a really large injury and the things we offer can really help make them more confident."

Hamish described the Wessex centre as a "fantastic service", adding: "It's really nice to see the patients from when they first come in to where they are when they leave, they're generally much better and thinking about going back to work so it's great to see how well they're doing."