Orthopaedic rehab centres upgraded

(13-10-2007)

HA NOI — Viet Nam will upgrade its orthopaedic rehabilitation centres, particularly the Vietnamese Training Centre for Orthopaedic Technologists (Vietcot), to meet international standards and supply qualified technologists to the country and the world, according to Dam Huu Dac, deputy minister of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs.

Speaking at a ceremony to mark Vietcot’s 10th anniversary in the capital yesterday, Dac also stressed that Viet Nam, home to over 5.3 million people with disabilities, faces an immense problem in rehabilitating its disabled people. A survey conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) says that 0.5 per cent of the population of the about 415,000 individuals are in need of technical health care.

Also present at the event, rector of the University of Labour and Social Affairs Professor Dr Nguyen Tiep said Vietcot, set up 10 years ago under a German funded technical co-operation project, aimed to offer professional training and education based on the standards of the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) and the WHO.

"Its project objective is to train students and upgrade qualified orthopaedists for work in Orthopaedic Rehabilitation centres," he said.

Tiep also applauded GTZ/Vietcot advisor Wilfried Raab for his assistance and contributions to the centre in the last decade, adding Vietcot was to receive further support from the German Government and Raab himself.

Deputy director of the centre, Dang Xuan Khang, said Vietcot had trained 141 orthopaedic technicians reaching ISPO and WHO Category II, and 45 others on biomechanics, technical drawing and drafting, and physical science.

He said the centre had also been successfully co-operating with and training international technologists from Tanzania, China, Cambodia and Pakistan.

"Vietcot has also been active in consultancy on improving the orthopaedic care system in Viet Nam; conducting clinics introducing new technologies to improve rehabilitation services for patients and providing advice on effective cost calculation to enable the economic management of an orthopaedic laboratory," Khang said.

At the International Rehabilitation Conference in Hong Kong in 2004, Vietcot was lauded as one of three training centres in the world to produce the most qualified orthopaedic technicians. — VNS