The British Association of Prosthetists and Orthotists

Covid-19

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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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Prosthetist Profiled

BAPO loves to share what our members have been doing, especially when they have been featured in articles and publications. Clinical Lead for the Isle of White, and BAPO member Carol Mabey; has had a lovely interview published discussing the challenges of a prosthetic service during lockdown. To read the article click here

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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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Workforce Survey

Thanks to those who have responded to our ‘Workforce Survey’. This poll has been designed to get a perspective on members experiences and, through comments, their views on the current Covid-19 crisis; providing the opportunity to explain how this has affected them, the services where they work and patients they treat.

In responding to the crisis BAPO are engaging with patient/user groups and stakeholder bodies, and are seeking out concerns raised by their members. In addition we are also reaching out to the national P&O managers groups and employers to clarify if there is a shared position in response to the crisis.

Initial issues which have been raised include:-

  1. Unclear position on urgent care being offered
  2. Unclear provision for growth in children who depend on an orthosis or prosthesis
  3. What pathways will be available to those not be able to obtain a prothesis or orthosis?
  4. What are the plans to manage access once services resume (including how will the backlog be prioritised and will social distancing impact on capacity)?
  5. How can parents/users access advice (including access to remote advice and information)?

 

We aim to collate the returned initial views and opinions by Friday and then draw on those to produce initial guidelines for all stakeholders. This is so that they can be used to advise and signpost clinicians, managers, carers, parents and service users.

As a follow up we plan to organise a webinar for the week of May 4th to communicate with service users and stakeholders; to share those guidelines. BAPO will now aim to develop a consensus on the best way to manage the current challenges and those which will emerge as P&O clinical services reboot.

 

Best wishes

Lynne

Lynne Rowley

Chair BAPO

 

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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

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Opportunities for employment in NHS Scotland.

Are you a Prosthetic and Orthotic Students based in Scotland?

Are you in your final 3-6 months of your degree?

 

Under the UK Coronavirus Act 2020, Emergency Registers have opened to former registrants to accelerate the workforce capacity across NHS Scotland. NHS Education Scotland (NES) has created an accelerated recruitment portal live from 29th March.

This portal will be collecting applications from across health and social care immediately, within health, initial priority for processing will be given to returners, nursing, midwifery and AHP students within the final 3-6 months of their education or final year of their honours programme.

To apply please access via

https://www.careers.nhs.scot/coronavirus-covid-19-recruitment/

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Covid-19 & AHP

The AHP Council have released a letter of support and guidance for AHPs at this time, Here is the letter from Chief AHP Suzanne Rastrick and to view the letter please click below

Supporting AHPs 19 March 2020

“Dear Chief AHPs,

 Please find attached a letter giving guidance and support to Allied Health Professions (AHPs) and AHPs support workers during this unprecedented time. The letter, written collaboratively by the four nations Chief AHP Officers, Council of Deans of Health, Health and Care Professions Council, General Osteopathic Council and the AHP Federation, recognises the need for flexibility in the delivery of services and that this requires a rational approach to the varying practice in such an emergency situation. The expectation of employers, educationalists, professional bodies, and national NHS organisations will be that they are flexible in their approach and that healthcare professional regulators, including the HCPC and GOsC, have already committed to take into account factors relevant to the environment in which the professional is working.

 This can be stressful, and we recognise that you may have concerns about both the professional practicalities and implications of working in such circumstances as well as the physical and emotional wellbeing of the workforce. Our advice for clinicians on coronavirus can be found here https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/

 Thank you to the many AHPs and their support staff across the NHS, wider health and care systems, and public health services who have already made major contributions to the response to COVID-19. We are very proud of the response of the professions in all areas of practice in their initial response to this challenge. We are confident of the commitment, dedication, professionalism and hard work that the AHPs workforce have and will continue to have over the course of this significant pandemic.

 Please share this with the AHP workforce across the systems in which you work.”

 Kind regards

Suzanne

Suzanne Rastrick OBE Chief Allied Health Professions Officer (England)

 

For all other updates on Covid-19 please click here

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Covid-19 & HCPC

Statement from UK Chief Allied Health Professions Officers and the Health and Care Professions Council regarding returnees to the HCPC register to respond to coronavirus demand
 

The coronavirus has united the nation in our efforts to delay the spread of the virus and support vulnerable members of our communities.

Health and social care services will be under increasing pressure as the number of cases increase.

We are proud that many Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) who have recently left the HCPC register have expressed a willingness to come back and help during the national emergency. We thank you for this and are keen to ensure your temporary return is as smooth as possible.

For this reason, we have agreed to automatically re-register all AHPs who have voluntarily left the HCPC register over the last three years onto a temporary COVID-19 Register once the government has passed its emergency legislation.

The HCPC will be contacting former registrants over the coming weeks to explain this process. There will also be more detailed information about HCPC’s policy, guidance to those who choose to return, and FAQs at www.hcpc-uk.org/covid-19.

Being placed on this temporary register does not assume any obligation to offer support as we appreciate not everyone will be able to do so for a variety of reasons.

To everyone who does offer to help in this time of crisis we would like to express our sincere appreciation.

 

Suzanne Rastrick, Chief Allied Health Professions Officer, NHS England

Jennifer Keane, Chief Allied Health Professions Officer, Department of Health Northern Ireland

Carolyn MacDonald, Chief Allied Health Professions Officer, Scottish Government

Ruth Crowder, Chief Therapies (Allied Health Professions) Adviser, Welsh Government

John Barwick, Chief Executive and Registrar, Health and Care Professions Council

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Notes to editors

The Health and Care Professions Council is an independent regulator set up by the Health and Social Work Professions Order 2001. The HCPC keeps a register for 15 different health and care professions and only registers people who meet the standards it sets for their training, professional skills, behaviour and health. The HCPC will take action against professionals who do not meet these standards or who use a protected title illegally.

The HCPC currently regulates 15 health and care professions. Each of these professions has one or more ‘protected titles’. Anyone who uses one of these titles must register with the HCPC. The full list of protected titles can be found here.

Requests for interview should be made through the HCPC Press Office on 07585 992 942 or press@hcpc-uk.org.

For all other updates on Covid-19 please click here