By Dr Aamer Khan
Imagine living with a wound that simply won’t heal. Not for days or weeks, but for months—even years. For millions of people across the UK, this is a daily reality.
From diabetic foot ulcers to pressure sores and leg ulcers, chronic wounds can be incredibly painful, limit mobility, and in some cases, lead to serious complications like infection or even amputation.
It’s a growing problem. As our population ages and more people are diagnosed with conditions like diabetes and vascular disease, the number of chronic wounds is rising fast. And unfortunately, our healthcare system is struggling to keep up.
You might be surprised to hear that wounds that don’t heal are now one of the NHS’s biggest clinical burdens. It costs the NHS around £8.3 billion a year to manage them—more than heart disease or cancer in some cases.
And it’s not just a financial strain. For people living with chronic wounds, it can be life-changing in all the wrong ways: lost independence, long-term pain, and emotional distress.
Take diabetic foot ulcers, for example. They’re the leading cause of diabetes-related amputations in the UK. Over 9,000 amputations a year are linked to diabetes, and the majority of those start with a small wound that failed to heal properly. That’s devastating—and in many cases, preventable.
Part of the issue lies in how wound care is delivered. Right now, treatment can be fragmented and frustrating. Patients are often passed between GPs, community nurses, and hospital specialists, with no one person or team overseeing the full healing journey.
This leads to delays, complications, and—understandably—stress and confusion.
So, what’s the answer? One area that’s generating real excitement in the medical world is regenerative medicine—a type of treatment that uses the body’s own natural healing powers to repair damaged tissue.
One of the most promising treatments is platelet-rich plasma therapy (or PRP for short). It’s surprisingly simple but incredibly powerful.
Doctors take a small sample of your blood, spin it in a special machine to concentrate the healing platelets and growth factors, and then apply it directly to the wound. Think of it as sending in a supercharged team of your body’s own cells to kickstart the healing process.
These treatments are already being delivered outside of hospitals by trained nurses in community clinics, care homes, and even in people’s own homes—making advanced wound care more accessible, more consistent, and less stressful.
One woman who knows the impact of this therapy firsthand is Francesca Cranage, a 54-year-old nurse from Leicester.
As a type 1 diabetic with a rare blood condition, Francesca’s skin is incredibly delicate. After a minor scrape on her leg from a child’s shoe, she developed a stubborn wound that refused to heal—despite years of conventional care.
Eventually, she was offered a regenerative therapy using her own blood. Within weeks, the wound began to close. Today, it’s fully healed and she’s back at work, living independently again.
“I honestly didn’t think it would ever heal,” she says. “This treatment gave me my life back.”
Encouragingly, early trials within the NHS are showing that these therapies work even for people whose wounds haven’t responded to anything else. Patients are healing faster and regaining quality of life—something that standard treatments often fail to achieve.
This model also takes pressure off busy GP surgeries and hospitals by bringing care directly to the patient. Mobile wound units and peripatetic teams (that means they move around and come to you!) are already making a difference in communities across the UK.
Alongside PRP, some clinics are exploring stem cell therapies made from a patient’s own bone marrow. These are typically reserved for more complex cases, but they show what’s possible when we combine medical science with a personalised, human-centred approach to care.
Regenerative therapies don’t just cover up wounds—they actively heal them. And when someone’s been living in pain, unable to walk, work, or enjoy daily life, that’s not just medicine—it’s transformation.
It’s time we started seeing wound care not as a niche issue, but as a major health priority. With the right treatments, delivered at the right time, we can restore dignity, independence, and well-being to thousands of people.
Dr Aamer Khan is a leading expert in regenerative medicine and Clinical Director of RegenSphere, a pioneering service delivering advanced wound healing therapies directly to patients in the community.
His team uses cutting-edge techniques like platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and stem cell therapies to treat complex wounds in a personalised and minimally invasive way.
Learn more at: www.regensphere.co.uk
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