The British Association of Prosthetists and Orthotists

News

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Dell Association Member Benefits

We are proud to partner with Dell UK to provide a range of discounts on selected IT and other benefits to our membership. 

These include:

  • 10-20% discount off laptops, desktops and accessories
  • Access to Dell’s highly trained Small Business Technology Advisors to help you with free advice to grow your business
  • Dedicated account manager to work with our membership team

To access the benefits, login to your BAPOnline account, select resources & then Dell Member Benefits.  Here you will find the link and unique ID code. 

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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.

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AOPA

Australian Orthotic Prosthetic Association (AOPA) National Congress 2020, Remotely Connect, Virtually Together

Venue: Virtual event

Date: Thursday 8th – Friday 9th October 2020

Website: https://www.aopa.org.au/events/category/aopa-congress

Description: The AOPA is delighted to invite our wider O&P network and allied health colleagues to the AOPA National Congress 2020 to be held as a live, virtual event from Thursday 8th – Friday 9th October 2020. Our innovative, virtual event has extensive concurrent program, exhibition hall and live chat lounges. The theme for our event is Remotely Connected, Virtually Together and we are pleased to have received extensive exhibition and delegate support during these challenging times. We are also thrilled to announce two keynote speaker, Mr Chapal Khasnabis, Director of Assistive Technology at the World Health Organisation and Mr David Constantine, Founder and Director of Motivation UK. Our impressive international keynote addresses are further complimented by more than 12 invited addresses cutting across orthotics/prosthetics, bionics and pattern recognition, international development, telehealth, digital technology and 3D printing and outcome measures in rehabilitation to name a few. The program aims to be relevant to a wide-breadth of allied health practitioners and rehabilitation specialists and will provide a forum to connect and share knowledge, skills and experiences, and to network on our exciting virtual platform.

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BACPAR

Join us for BACPAR’s first ever virtual conference!

Also, for the first time, BACPAR 2020 will be part of the Vascular Societies Annual Scientific Meeting.

This means BACPAR delegates get access to all content from the VS, SVN and SVT programmes!

Prosthetists & orthotist can take advantage of the reduced AHP delegate rate of £25 to access all content from BACPAR, VS, SVN and SVT.

For more information see the programme

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OTworld

OTWorld Connect 2020 – Exhibitor Brochure

The show will now be held totally digital and companies can upload information and book one of the 3 Packages with prices starting from € 3900. Please see exhibitor brochure above for more details.

Deadline 30th September 2020.

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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 March 31st 2021

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Returning to Practice

HCPC have advised they have some new process and help in place for those returning to practice, taking into considerations the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, The updates are as follows:

Timescales

Our returning to practice processes will take account of the impact COVID-19 may have had on the timescales within which returnees have been able to complete their period of updating.

We would usually require that all of an applicant’s updating is completed, from start to finish, within the 12 months before they apply for registration or readmission. 

We are temporarily extending this period to 24 months.

Evidence of Supervised Practice

We will support returnees in using evidence of practice as a temporary registrant as proof of ‘supervised practice’, where appropriate.

Our requirements around supervised practice are already permissive and we do not set detailed guidance for supervisors because we believe that the level of supervision needed and the tasks carried out will depend on the returner’s specific learning needs. 

We appreciate the challenges COVID-19 will have presented in this regard and will allow supervisors to make their own judgements on what level of supervision is/has been possible during the pandemic.

Alternative Forms of Study

We will consider alternative forms of ‘formal study’ gained during the COVID-19 pandemic, where these are reasonable and give rise to similar levels of learning.

It will be for applicants to justify this in their returning to practice form; and we will be as flexible as possible in considering alternatives.

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Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) Careers

Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) – how my eyes were opened to these wonderful careers

Physiotherapist and former Health Education England Leadership Fellow Marie-Clare Wadley began filming some of her colleagues – and discovered incredibly rewarding ‘secret’ careers that provide essential support to patients. Here she describes her experience.

For those receiving A-level results and still wondering about their next steps, or looking for inspiration on the Health Education England Health Careers website, the NHS offers a quite amazing range of careers. Ask anyone in the street and some of the most obvious will spring to mind – doctor, nurse, paramedic – but some of the most critical and really rewarding jobs are unlikely to trip off the tongue quite so readily.

How many people even know what an allied health professional is? Well, the term actually refers to 14 different occupations, namely art therapists, dietitians, dramatherapists, music therapists, occupational therapists, operating department practitioners, orthoptists, osteopaths, paramedics, physiotherapists, podiatrists, prosthetists and orthotists, diagnostic and therapeutic radiographers and speech and language therapists.

I’m a physiotherapist, and when I started out I believed it was the best job ever in health care. I’m a physiotherapist through and through – I get to work with other great professions, both registered and non-registered people who all have the same common goal, and that’s patient-centred care. As my career progressed I started to open my eye and look beyond my own immediate world of work.

I’m a gadget girl – l love looking at life and learning in a different way. I guess being dyslexic made me use other parts of my brain to learn rather than just relying on words –  images, imagination or a Marvel film any day. I used to sit and dream of the time I could just point at the air and create a sequence of exercises in three dimensions.  The idea of a holographic Allied Health Professional came to mind.

I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity of an AHP Leadership Fellowship with Health Education England.  This led me on a journey which opened my eyes to just how diverse and special these AHP roles are. Take podiatry, for example. Think about the horrific complications of a diabetic foot ulcer which, if not treated properly and early enough, can lead to drastic outcomes such as amputation. Which leads us on to prosthetists and orthotists – the ones who, if you’ve had an amputation, can guide your recovery by making bespoke equipment to help you walk.

We are all interconnected.  My knowledge really grew when I came up with the idea of making a series of immersive, virtual reality films about the day in the life of an AHP, and it dawned on me that I didn’t really have a clue what these amazing professions did. The first film was Prosthetics and Orthotics in Oxford, where I had worked for years but had never taken the time to discover how important these professions are, even though I have treated many people with amputations over the years. I experienced watching a child be able to kick a ball in the playground with his new orthotics, and seeing a young man who had lost his leg in a road accident perform his traditional street dance Capoeira with his artificial limb brought tears to my eyes.

Watching a combination of technicians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and prosthetists assess, support and adjust his limb to reduce the pressure on what was left of his lower leg was captivating – a combination of technology, teamwork, skill and professionalism all wrapped up in a humanistic and caring approach which made me very proud to be an AHP working in the NHS.

Yes, these careers aren’t always at the forefront of people’s minds but they are definitely vital.  Think about therapeutic radiographers, whose precise technique and highly-specialised training helps cure our loved ones of cancer.  And I didn’t even really know what an orthoptist was until I filmed them helping children with visual difficulties and adults with increasing sight loss. I watched their incredible expertise, injecting eyes and pushing to the limit to ensure people with failing sight get the right treatment with the right expert at the right time.

When I started my filming, it was a project. Now it’s a passion, and I want everyone to understand these amazing, rewarding and vital roles. I want people to understand there is far more to the NHS than just doctors and nurses.

AHPs focus on prevention as well as treatment, and if we can stop someone from needing intense medical intervention before it is needed, surely that is where the future of our healthcare lies?

But to do that we need great people.  If you’ve completed your A-levels and are looking for a profession that offers real purpose, wonderful teamwork and the genuine opportunity to change thousands of lives for the better, look no further.  There’s an AHP role for you.

To find out more, take a look at my ground-breaking films and judge for yourself:-

https://hee-vr360.azurewebsites.net/

Marie-Clare is now a leader within the world of virtual reality in health care experiences. She worked alongside virtual reality expert Nick Peres, who is Head of Digital Technologies at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust.