Minister Jagutpal announces the construction of a new building for the Orthopaedic Appliances Workshop The construction of a new e-healthy friendly building with more working and training space is scheduled to start in a few weeks’ time next to the old building of the Orthopaedic Appliances Workshop. This project has been funded in the Budget 2023-2024 and has been referred to the HSCC India Limited. The above announcement was made by the Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Kailesh Jagutpal, this morning, during the opening ceremony of a one-day workshop on Orthopaedic Appliances, this morning, at the Docks, in Port Louis. The Academics and Technical Director of Mobility India, Mrs Ritu Ghosh; the Technical Officer of Mobility India, Mr Sanjoy Oinam Singh; the Manager of the Orthopaedic Appliances Workshop, Mr Jean Pierre Lau Wan Lun; the Director of the Mauritius Institute of Health, Dr Geeta Daby; and other personalities were also present. In his address, Minister Jagutpal emphasised on the pivotal role of the existing Orthopaedic Appliances Workshop located at the Old Brown Sequard Mental Health Care Centre in Beau Bassin, in enhancing the quality of life of people with disabilities in Mauritius since 1940. This workshop, he underscored, has been providing as well as manufacturing orthopaedic prosthetics for the whole body to suit the needs of patients. In 2023, more than 22,000 patients have attended the Orthopaedic Appliances Workshop Consultation and some 19,000 Orthopaedic Appliances have been leveraged of, he indicated. Dr Jagutpal dwelt on the high proportion (20%) of the Mauritian population suffering from type 2 diabetes, the number of road accidents resulting in serious injuries, and among other cases necessitating Orthopaedic care and appliances. Last year, 493 new amputations were carried out, he deplored. These, he remarked, call for the need for timely prosthetics and orthotics service provision. The Health Minister shared that the services offered at the Workshop have undergone regular upgrading and new appliances such as corrective braces, spinal braces for fracture of spine, adapted chairs for cerebral palsy have been introduced. Nonetheless, he averred that, with the intent to revamp the Orthopaedic Appliances Department, the Ministry has solicited the assistance of Mobility India, an agency specialised in the disability, rehabilitation and development sector, aiding some 33 countries in enhancing their Orthopaedic Workshop. Expressing his gratitude to Mobility India for their unflinching support, Dr Jagutpal highlighted that Mrs Ghosh and Mr Oinam Singh will evaluate the present services and operations of the department, provide capacity-building to technicians and the personnel through specialised courses at the Mauritius Institute of Health and in India, and review the schemes of service of the employees. These will fundamentally help in paving the way for the revamping of the Orthopaedic workshop, the Health Minister averred. For her part, Mrs Ghosh elucidated on the key objectives of the Mobility India organisation, in promoting an inclusive and empowered community for people with disabilities since 1994. She also pointed out that till date, an estimated 7652 individuals globally have benefitted from training on assistive technologies
