Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

`State should not neglect courses in prosthetics and orthotics'

Staff Reporter

FRUITFUL DISCUSSION: K.C.Ramaswami, Orthopaedic and Spine Surgeon, Kovai Medical Center and Hospitals (left), S.Rajasabapathy, Director and Head of Department of Plastic, Hand and Micro Surgery, Ganga Hospital (centre) and N.Suresh Joshi, President o f the Orthotics and Prosthetics Society of India (OPSI), Southern Chapter (right) at the continuing rehabilitation educational programme organised by OPSI in Coimbatore on Saturday. — Photo: M. Periasamy

COIMBATORE: Even as demand for qualified prosthetists is huge, courses in orthotics and prosthetics are largely neglected in Tamil Nadu, K.C.Ramaswami, Orthopaedic and Spine Surgeon, Kovai Medical Center and Hospitals, said.

Speaking at the continuing rehabilitation educational programme on "The Latest Development in Lower Extremity Prosthetics" organised by the Orthotics and Prosthetics Society of India (OPSI), Southern Chapter, here on Saturday, he said, unlike other States, the courses had not yet been upgraded to B.Sc in Tamil Nadu.

This had led to a lot of unqualified personnel practising the profession in the State.

In the wake of increasing global competition, he urged the professionals to treat the science of orthotics and prosthetics as a commodity suitable for sale in a global village.

"They have to gear up for global competition." They should also become quality conscious, he said.

While the role of a prosthetist was to make a disabled person self-sufficient, the profession was not confined to just making artificial limbs.

It needed intensive training and the person undergoing it should acquire skill and acumen, he added.

Making high-end technology available to the masses was the challenge that prosthetists had to face today, said S.Rajasabapathy, Director and Head of Department of Plastic, Hand and Micro Surgery, Ganga Hospital.

As the standards of surgical procedures were redefined, the same kind of developmental changes had to reflect upon rehabilitation services too, in which orthotists and prosthetists played a very important role, he said.

The programme was to create an interest in prosthetics among youngsters and urge the Government to revive the course, said N.Suresh Joshi, President of OPSI.

The Rehabilitation Council of India had ordered closing down of the School of Prosthetics and Orthotics in Chennai, the only college offering such a course in South India, owing to insufficient students, faculty and infrastructure.

The Society had also requested the Government to constitute a committee to examine this issue and initiate steps to resume the course in prosthetics and orthotics.

There was also a demand for prosthetics professionals in the country, which could be met only if the courses were resumed with renewed vigour, Mr.Joshi added in his address.

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