Page 41 - BHTA 100 years

M“emories from... Colin Peacock
Each regional representative of The National Orthotic Committee (NOC) was challenged to
break down their inter-company rivalry, which had existed with a vengeance at that time and create local meetings which had a professional interest and educational agenda. At the same time as this was occurring questions were being tabled in the Houses of Parliament relating to patients dismay of bad Orthotic services.
Two in uential Surgeons: Gordon Rose in England and George Murdoch in Scotland decided to do something about it and started initiatives to educate the Prosthetists and Orthotists who were at the patient interface. George Murdoch persuaded authorities to nd nance to set up the Prosthetic and Orthotic Faculty at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and Gordon Rose established nance to set up an HND course based at Paddington, London followed by a second centre in Salford.
The next aim was to ensure that people entering the professions of Prosthetics and Orthotics should be put through an academically recognised route. A rule was created by which anyone who had been working in the professions for a period of time was exempt from training, otherwise it was necessary to embark on one of the courses. This was the so called ‘Grandfather Clause’. The NOC of BIST was now well-established and functioning well. They were given the brief of examining the CV of each person applying to enter the profession by the ‘Grandfather route’ to verify the level of experience and give a licence to practice. Throughout this period members of NOC met every six weeks in Stourbridge on a Saturday to authorise and investigate these applications with queries being referred back to regions.
Five BSTA companies and two NHS Trusts were selected to be training establishments and training of cers selected to be responsible for the practical element of the sandwich course in Paddington. These of cers were then grouped into the National Orthotic Training Of cers Group (NOTOG)
and had to attend annual obligatory training courses. This was all governed by the Orthotic and Prosthetic Training and Education Council (OPTEC) which was chaired by a person selected by the Privy Council. This was a signi cant way forward to creating the Prosthetic and Orthotic profession. At various periods, I was honoured to chair all these groupings and salute all those membe”rs of BSTA, BIST, Surgeons and Mechanical Engineers who were involved with such huge
commitment of energy and time.
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