BAPO

HomePage News

by

Access to Vaccinations

 

BAPO have made a statement across all the home nations on their stance regarding the new Covid-19 vaccination. The statement is below

The British Association of Prosthetists and Orthotists (BAPO) is the professional body representing clinicians working in our field in the UK.

Prosthetist/orthotists are one of 14 Allied Health Professions (AHPs) providing key frontline services in the NHS. They work in many different environments from emergency care to rehabilitation, primary care to schools. Prosthetist/orthotists work with people of all ages and our roles require face to face intervention often with the most vulnerable of society.

Prosthetist/orthotists provide a clinical service to local trusts. They also travel between multiple clinic locations to support wider services such as vascular, diabetic care, paediatrics, elderly care and between different trusts.

Prosthetist/orthotists are either employed directly by the NHS or are subcontracted to provide NHS clinical services as their full-time role.  Due to our small numbers, these key AHPs, working within the NHS directly with patients, can be excluded or forgotten when it comes to national initiatives such as vaccinations for front line staff.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises that the first priorities for the current COVID-19 vaccination programme should be the prevention of COVID-19 mortality and the protection of health and social care staff and systems (30th Dec 2020).

It is imperative that ALL AHP’s, including contracted Prosthetist/orthotists are included in all local vaccination plans for COVID-19 protection. Therefore, all NHS providers should ensure that Prosthetist/orthotists working within their organisation are recognised as frontline patient facing staff and are entitled to vaccination in line with national set priorities. This action will protect the staff concerned, NHS service providers and their patients, whilst ensuring that vital prosthetic and orthotic services are maintained.

We are therefore looking to NHS providers to protect our members, the patients they treat and NHS colleagues they work with.

Regarding the stance in England BAPO has received assurance from the Deputy Chief AHP Officer for England that the current national vaccination plans are to apply to ALL frontline health and care professionals, wherever they work and whoever employs them.

by

Orthotist of the Year

BAPO is proud to announce the “Centre for Biomechanics and Rehabilitation Technologies, Staffordshire University Orthotist of the Year Award.”

This award is for an Orthotist who consistently goes that extra mile for patient satisfaction or has a great understanding of what their patient needs. It could be for an Orthotist who has excelled in research or has overcome barriers to allow them to carry out their duties, or who consistently design excellent and innovative orthoses.

The Orthotist can be nominated by anyone, be it their manager, a clinician, a fellow Orthotist, a technician or a patient. The winner will receive a prize of £200 and free registration to the BAPO clinical programme at the BAPO conference in 2021To nominate an Orthotist of the Year simply tell us in under 300 words why they should win this award.
Send your entry together with a completed Nomination Form (available here) to:
BAPO, Unit 3010, Mile End Mill,
Abbey Mill Business Centre, Seedhill Road, Paisley, PA1 1JS
Email: enquiries@bapo.com

The winners will be presented with their award by Professor Nachi Chockalingam, Professor of Biomechanics at Staffordshire University.
Deadline for entries January 31st 2021

by

BAPO Guidelines for Virtual Patient Assessment

In light of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the challenges it has caused to normal practice, a working group was formed to assist our clinicians in providing a virtual service.

This group has worked incredibly hard in a very short timescale to produce some new guidance for the profession and we would like to thank them all for their work.

The attached guidelines have been created to allow Orthotists to pro-actively rise to the challenges faced in the current climate and enable Orthotists to still treat non-urgent patients without the need for face-to-face consultations in a standard orthotic clinic

You can find these guidelines here BAPO Guidelines for Virtual Patient Assessment or in the education resource section of the website

If you have any feedback or questions relating to these guidelines please email enquiries@bapo.com