The second ever NHS specialist dance injury clinic is set to open at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) as part of the hospital's Sport and Exercise Medicine Service.

The partners of the ground-breaking National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science (NIDMS) announced the new clinic following the success of the London clinic at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH).

Research has shown 80% of professional dancers suffer an injury that stops them working each year, so fast, affordable, specialist healthcare is critical to keeping dancers in employment.

Birmingham is one of the biggest hubs of dancers in England with a concentration of dance science expertise including three of the founding NIDMS partners: Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB); University of Wolverhampton’s Dance Science Department; and the University of Birmingham’s dance psychology research group in the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences and School of Psychology.

The new clinic will be based at QEHB and will work in partnership with Birmingham Royal Ballet’s state-of-the-art Jerwood Centre for the Prevention and Treatment of Dance Injuries. The first NHS dance injury clinic at RNOH opened in May 2012 and has treated more than 200 dancers in its first year, and has been widely acclaimed by dancers and dance companies.

The Birmingham announcement marks a significant milestone in fulfilling the goal announced at the London NIDMS launch last year to raise further funds, to create similar services where there are concentrations of dancers across the UK, by 2017.

Dr Leon Creaney, Consultant in Sport and Exercise Medicine at QEHB said: “We look forward to providing a world-class NHS specialist dance injury clinic at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and forging a successful partnership with the Jerwood Centre.

"This model of care has worked extremely well in London and we plan to replicate this in Birmingham so the region’s dancers can receive a bespoke service. The clinic offers a multi-disciplinary approach utilising a sports physician and sports physiotherapist to offer experienced care for dancers.”

NIDMS, through shared expertise and a network of multidisciplinary hub-sites and partners, aims to provide all dancers with access to high quality, evidence-based, dance-specific healthcare and dance science services. It has three strands: clinical services; education for dancers and medical specialists; and research.