NHS staff, former clients and representatives from the Department of Transport, Motability and the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) will come together on Tuesday 8 May to celebrate The North West Driving Assessment Centre’s 25th anniversary.
The service, based in Haydock, Merseyside and delivered by Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (Bridgewater), welcomed over 650 people with a range of disabilities, illnesses and health conditions through its doors last year.
It is one of only a handful of NHS driving assessment centres in the country and has a dedicated and friendly team of occupational therapists, driving instructors and administrators on hand to offer comprehensive advice and assessments on both vehicle adaptations and driving ability. The centre also has a fleet of specially adapted dual control vehicles on site which are used as part of the assessments and it offers driving lessons to people with specialist health conditions who are unable to learn in a normal vehicle.
Also celebrating an anniversary at the event is Deborah Murgatroy, a Clinical Lead and an occupational therapist at the centre, who is the only member of staff to have worked at the service since it started in 1993.
Attending will be Bridgewater Chief Executive Colin Scales, the centre’s Team Leader Rebecca Jones, Deborah Murgatroy, former clients and representatives from Department of Transport, Motability and the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).
