Regional Networks - Established Regional Groups

There are currently 10 regional groups in the UK .Each of the groups below are affiliated to BAHT but run independently and are organised voluntarily by local hand therapists.The groups all have different arrangements for meetings in terms of frequency and format but aim to improve networking and information sharing amongst regional hand thearpists .

For further information about the groups and forthcoming events please check with the contacts for each region.

Non members may be welcome but please check with the contacts for each group.

Future meetings will be advertised on this web page.

Forthcoming Meetings:

South Wales Group Hand Meeting-Next meeting Tuesday 24th November at Morriston Hospital ,Swansea 2pm .

Topic-Feedback from the BAHTconference and 3 case study presentations

Contact-Laura Ingham ,O.TDept,Morriston Hospital .Tel 01792 703590

email-  Laura.Ingham@Swanseatr-wales.nhs.uk

The Wessex Hand Club

The Wessex Hand Club is pleased to link together therapists who have an interest in hand therapy. Membership of BAHT is not required – nor any proof of experience in treating hand patients. The group is informal and there is no membership fee. All communication is managed through email. The main meeting of the Wessex Hand Club is hosted and organised, once a year, by the Wessex Hand surgeons. In addition, the therapists facilitate their own meeting, once a year, to consider specific hand therapy issues.

If you would like your details added to the database for the hand therapists linked to The Wessex Hand Club, please email Carole Bexon (carole.bexon@salisbury.nhs.uk) with the following information:

Name and title, work address, telephone number, email address, profession, BAHT number (if member).

Wessex Hand Club – Meeting October 2009

The Wessex Hand Club met in Salisbury in October 2009. The meeting was organised and run by Mr Rod Dunn, Consultant Plastic Surgeon from the Odstock Centre for Burns, Plastics and Maxillofacial Surgery. There was excellent representation of hand surgeons and hand therapists from across the Wessex Region and beyond – including Bristol and Exeter.

Professor Simon Kay, Consultant Plastic and Hand Surgeon from St James’s University Hospital had been invited as guest speaker for the day. Sadly he was unable to attend as his flight from Leeds was fog bound. However, the day continued with the main theme of reconstructive surgery in major hand trauma and in children’s hand surgery.

Of special interest were two presentations, both addressing some of the upper limb trauma seen in military personnel as a result of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Rod Dunn gave a fascinating presentation of eleven case studies in soldiers who had secondary reconstruction of upper limb injuries. Especially, these involved replacing tight skin grafts with large free perforator flaps. For many of these cases, the recovery in nerve function was impressive and rapid – in one patient, within hours, function returned to a previously paralysed muscle.

Ian Jones, Prosthetist from Headley Court gave an interesting talk on the current approaches in prosthetics for upper limb injuries. Many of the injuries he described are occurring as a result of IEDs – lower limb amputations are far greater in number than the relatively small numbers of upper limb amputations. He described how military personnel are able to access “state of the art” prosthetics for both upper and lower limb prosthetics. He gave an example that the average lower limb supplied to military personnel costs in the region of £15,000 – the NHS funding available for the same problem is £1,500. When military personnel are discharged from the army and return to the NHS for their care, managing expectation is a clear problem.

are frequently rejected by the patient. For many patients, the split hook prostheses still prove to be more functional than a myoelectric arm. He gave glimpses of the future with the i-LIMB – a fully articulated bionic hand with myoelectric controls, ProDigits – a prostheses designed to give function to patients with partial hand amputations and the X-Finger™ - an artificial finger for partial finger amputees. Further information on these devices can be found on the internet.

Our thanks to the Wessex surgeons and their sponsors, who hosted this day free of charge.

For further information about the Wessex Hand Group please see the BAHT website.

Carole Bexon

Head Occupational Therapist

Wessex Rehabilitation Centre

Salisbury District Hospital

Contacts:

Download Regional Networks Criteria document here
Download Regional Networks Links document here