BAPO

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Marketing – Committee Member Advert

BAPO is seeking additional members to join and strengthen our Marketing Committee.

As the UK’s professional body for prosthetics and orthotics, we are committed to building lifelong relationships with our members that help them achieve their full potential and improve the lives of patients across the country. As a volunteer serving on this committee, you will play a crucial part by helping us to better understand our audiences (members and non-members).

The Executive Committee is setting ambitious targets for 2021, reflecting feedback from our P&O community! To achieve these, we need more current and reliable insight across our membership segments, and improved engagement to inform our actions. As a member of the Marketing sub-committee you will contribute to this key activity.

This is an exciting time to join our growing team. We are seeking volunteers who are passionate about representing our profession, with an interest in marketing, communications and social media. Ideal contributors will have strong interpersonal qualities and the ability to engage and collaborate with others; to identify opportunities, discover best practice, and then assist with communicating relevant findings and recommendations.

BAPO offers its volunteer members a supportive culture for your own learning, with opportunities for you to stretch yourself and test out different ways of working. As you join the committee you will be provided with an induction and mentor to help you through the initial period and ensure that you feel supported.

Success in this activity will require a combination of self-directed activity, whilst working as part of a team. The nature of the role means that there will be a requirement to commit to some evening and/or weekend working.

So, if you’re looking for an opportunity to be creative, make an impact and would enjoy working in a small team environment, find out more about this new exciting role.

To ensure we have diverse representation from our membership, expressions of interest will be welcomed from under-represented groups. These include:

                          – Prosthetists
                          – Student members
                          – Technicians
                          – Members in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland

We would also welcome interest from marketing professionals keen to volunteer some of their time and expertise to serve on our sub-committee in an advisory capacity.

Please confirm you interest by 19th March 2021 to enquires@BAPO.com

For an informal discussion about the role, commitment required and support that would be offered you can contact Peter Iliff at peter@bapo.com 

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National Practice Placement Coordinator – Prosthetics & Orthotics

Fixed term 12 months – 2 days per week secondment £48,000 pro rata

This 12-month seconded post within the British Association of Prosthetists and Orthotists (BAPO) has been secured with funding from Health Education England (HEE). BAPO was successful with a funding bid within the HEE Clinical Placement Expansion Programme launched in 2020. This is a programme of activities to support all Allied Health Professions expand and improve practice placements.

The post holder’s principal role will be to deliver a package of measures to increase practice educator numbers and placements for prosthetic and orthotic students in England, with a legacy that will be self-sustaining going forward into 2022 and beyond.

Job Description here

Enquiries should be directed to Lynne Rowley, tel 07801659952 or email enquiries@bapo.com

Closing date Monday 15th March.

Online interviews Friday 26th March, 2021.

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AHP’s Listen Event

The Current Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) strategy ‘AHPs into Action is coming to an end in 2022 and so our CAHPO (Chief Allied Health Professionals Officer) is now starting a consultation period for its successor.

The aim is for the content to be crowed sourced from both professionals and ‘citizens’ and will be split into 3 sections to allow views to be sourced from all parties

The first group ‘citizen’s’ can register now to have there say at the AHPListens website please share this link amongst colleagues, patients, family and friends.

Prosthetists and Orthotists can also sign up to the first national conversation in their capacity as citizens who also use health care services but the second conversation in may will be aimed at capturing your views as a professional

For more information see the attached covering letter from the campaign:

AHPsListen-Covering-LetterDownload

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MHRA Updates: BAPO Guidance on MDR regulations post Brexit

The Medical and Health care products Regulatory Agency MHRA published an update on the UK.Gov website at the end of December 2020 ( https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/in-house- manufacture-of-medical-devices/in-house-manufacture-of-medical-devices ) concerning in-house manufacture of medical devices and exemptions from the Medical Devices Regulations (MDR). There has been some discussion as to what, if any, exemptions are applicable for prosthetics and orthotics.

There is a line in the text of the update that reads: These regulations don’t apply if your device is only being used for patients within the institute it was made, even if the product is made in one part of a healthcare establishment. For example, if it is made in an NHS Trust laboratory and moved to another part of the hospital, as this means you are not placing it on the market (GOV.UK, 2020).

BAPO have been in direct discussion with the MHRA to clarify if this meant the exemption only applied whilst the patient wearing the device was on the premises of the healthcare establishment and not when the patient had left the establishment. i.e. only whilst they were an in-patient and once they were discharged to out-patient care the exemption ceased.

The answer we got was concise and unambiguous: “We can confirm that the in house exemption for medical devices manufactured by in-house units and supplied to patients within the same healthcare institutions applies to both in-patients and out-patients.” Once devices are placed on the market or transferred to another establishment (a transfer refers to a sale, loan, hire, lease, gift, or any other type of legal transfer), the exemption no longer applies. Should the patient move to another healthcare establishment, the onus for taking on responsibility of the second-hand device is on the receiving establishment. The receiving establishment would need assurance that the product was manufactured to the appropriate requirements. The original manufacturer will have the records in place to show that the product was manufactured to the appropriate requirements. In–House manufacturing units should have a quality manufacturing system in place regardless of this exemption.
This exemption does NOT mean that these in-house units should not have a Quality Management System in place. For patient safety, they should be closely aligned with the MDR regulations, e.g. technical data provided, device types, process systems, traceability records, CE component batch/lot number recorded etc.

If further information is required BAPO recommends departments contact the MHRA direct. Contact details for queries specific to medical devices devices.regulatory@mhra.gov.uk and for general enquiries info@mhra.gov.uk

Reference
GOV.UK. (2020, December 31). In-house manufacture of medical devices in Great Britain. Retrieved February 2, 2021, from http://www.gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/in-house-manufacture-of-medical-devices/in-house-manufacture-of-medical-devices

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New position statement for children’s services

We would like to draw attention to the need for prosthetic and orthotic intervention to continue for children and young people. We ask that prosthetic and orthotic services are protected to enable this aspect of the service to continue throughout the pandemic and ensuing winter pressures.

The impact of COVID-19 on children and young people, especially those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), has been significant. Access to prosthetic and orthotic services in the UK is vital in supporting children’s physical health, mental health and development. With orthotics, access to timely treatment ensures the effectiveness of some therapy treatment which relies on orthotic intervention for optimum results. It is important that children have access to prosthetic treatment to ensure that the prosthetic devices they use for daily activities are revised appropriately to prevent mobility issues and potential physical damage due to ill fitting devices.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we need to protect families, children and young people who rely on prosthetic and orthotic treatment as an adjunct to surgery, medical intervention, serial casting or therapy treatment, to be able to function at their best. Children are growing, conditions changing constantly and with targeted input from our services when they are required, long term disability and harm can be avoided.

We therefore ask that services remain open and an appropriate number of Prosthetists and Orthotists are protected from redeployment, to ensure that families with children and young people, have access to the support they sorely need.

We recognise the need for flexibility in areas where acute pressures are high, where individual discussions may be appropriate, however, we ask that the impact of the lack of access to prosthetic and orthotic services are discussed and understood from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Prosthetic and orthotic services should not be left without the staff or facilities to deliver essential treatment as occurred earlier in 2020.

British Association of Prosthetists and Orthotists

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Feedback Survey

As a volunteer-run organization serving the prosthetic and orthotic community, we actively use feedback to improve our membership program.

If you can spare ten minutes for a quick survey we’d love to get your thoughts and ideas to help us make BAPO better. You do not have to be a member to complete this

Click here to take part:  https://baposurvey.typeform.com/to/j5Gsbh6c

Thank you for your time and input.

The Team at BAPO