SDR press release, 21 July 2014

NHS Commissioning through Evaluation has given the green light to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for a funded Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) Service.NHS England has set-up Commissioning through Evaluation (CtE) for SDR surgery for children aged 3-9 years old with bilateral spastic cerebral palsy.

On 17 July 2014 NHS England announced the long awaited news that GOSH is now commissioned as an official designated provider of SDR for children in the UK. This is fantastic news for our families and the team.

We are delighted that the Movement Disorders Service at GOSH has been recognised as a national centre of excellence for children with spastic cerebral palsy. This recognition follows an incredible amount of hard work from the team and the support from the families we work with, to develop our integrated service.

To have SDR Commissioned by NHS England through the CtE means that children, in the South East  of England, will have access to SDR without having to decide if their families can afford it.

The design of our service is set up not only to support the children and families undergoing this procedure, but also to collect high quality data - to evaluate the benefits for our patients in both the short and long term. The Movement Disorders Team at GOSH look forward to working closely with our colleagues in the four other provider centres in England and and the NHS England CtE team to further document the safety, efficacy and outcomes of SDR.

This is a hugely important development for the whole team. We are delighted to be working with NHS England and our specialist colleagues nationally to deliver SDR for children in our care.

For more information contact Nicholas Turnbull, SDR Co-ordinator at Nicholas.turnbull@gosh.nhs.uk