Rehab centre at GMCH boon for differently-abled : guwhati

Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO), Guwahati, which is housed on the Composite Regional Centre (CRC) campus, has taken the initiative to run a rehabilitation centre at Gauhati Medical College and hospital (GMCH).

GMCH continues to function without a rehabilitation centre, over a decade after it was closed down because of lack of funds and manpower.

ALIMCO has also appointed a deputy director for organizing camps in order to identify persons with disabilities and provide them with limbs free of cost. Nearly around 1000 patients come to GMCH yearly for limb and other requirements, Tulsi Bhattacharjee, the head of the department of orthopedics at GMCH, said.

A two-day disabled identification camp was organized by ALIMCO, Guwahati, recently. A total of 168 patients attended the first day of the camp.

The officer-in-charge of ALIMCO, Guwahati, R C Sahoo, said, "The Centre has provided Rs 16 lakh for this purpose. Under this project, we will provide tricycles to 31 beneficiaries, 33 wheelchairs, 98 hearing aid digital, auxiliary crutches to 44 patients and four walking sticks to the blind."

The doctors at GMCH said there was an urgent need for a good rehab centre that can provide artificial limbs to needy differently-abled people of the state.

"There was a GMCH rehabilitation centre, but it stopped functioning from the late 90s due to paucity of funds and lack of trained staff. Since the centre closed, we refer patients with disabilities to CRC of the government, which is attached to GMCH. The centre attends to patients with all kinds of disabilities," Bhattacharjee said.

He said, "The state is lagging behind as far as limb replacement is concerned. This is because of lack of initiative taken by the state government. When there was a rehabilitation centre at GMCH, we did not have a workshop to manufacture limbs and we used to bring them from Kanpur whenever required. This involved a lot of investment and after a while the government failed to bear the expenses. Moreover, the employees at the centre were not properly trained."

He, however, added that the CRC, equipped with all the facilities, has been of a great help in providing rehabilitation to physically challenged persons.


Source : TOI , Guwahati ( 5th march 2013 )