A new National Prosthetics Centre in Penal, Trinidad and Tobago, has launched to address the needs of over 200 citizens awaiting artificial limbs, with future plans to serve the wider Caricom region.
SASCHA WIL-SON Se-nior Re-porter sascha.wil-son@guardian.co.tt More than 200 peo-ple await-ing pros-thet-ic limbs are ex-pect-ed to ben-e-fit from the open-ing of the Na-tion-al Pros-thet-ics Cen-tre at Clarke Road, Pe-nal, Health Min-is-ter Dr Lack-ram Bo-doe said yes-ter-day, as he de-scribed the fa-cil-i-ty as a ma-jor mile-stone in strength-en-ing health-care ser-vices in T&T.. Prime Min-is-ter Kam-la Per-sad-Bisses-sar, in whose con-stituen-cy the cen-tre is lo-cat-ed, said it would not on-ly ben-e-fit lo-cals, but the plan is to ex-pand the
ser-vices to Cari-com ter-ri-to-ries.. Speak-ing at the launch of the cen-tre, es-tab-lished through a part-ner-ship in-volv-ing the Gov-ern-ment of In-dia and Jaipur Foot USA, Bo-doe said the fa-cil-i-ty would help ad-dress the grow-ing de-mand for pros-thet-ic ser-vices while im-prov-ing long-term care and re-ha-bil-i-ta-tion for am-putees.. The cen-tre was es-tab-lished fol-low-ing a suc-cess-ful ar-ti-fi-cial limb fit-ment camp held in 2025, which ben-e-fit-ed more than 800 cit-i-zens.. The ini-tia-tive fol-lowed a vis-it by In-di-an Prime Min-is-ter Shri
Naren-dra Mo-di.. “This per-ma-nent na-tion-al fa-cil-i-ty here in Clark Road, Pe-nal, in the con-stituen-cy of Siparia, un-der the gov-er-nance of the Min-istry of Health, will ad-dress the back-log of per-sons wait-ing for pros-thet-ic limbs, as well as cater to fu-ture needs,” Bo-doe said.. The min-is-ter ex-plained that the fa-cil-i-ty would pro-vide as-sess-ment, fit-ting, and fol-low-up ser-vices while al-so sup-port-ing lo-cal tech-ni-cal train-ing and ca-pac-i-ty build-ing with-in the pub-lic health sys-tem.. “Work is al-ready un-der-way to
sup-port ad-di-tion-al pa-tients iden-ti-fied through the ex-ist-ing wait-ing list, which cur-rent-ly in-cludes more than 200 per-sons re-quir-ing pros-thet-ic ser-vices and fol-low-up care,” he said, adding that the first two pa-tients had al-ready been mea-sured for pros-thet-ic limbs.. Through the sup-port of Jaipur Foot USA, he said a spe-cialised pros-thet-ics tech-ni-cian from In-dia would be based in Trinidad and To-ba-go for the next 12 months to as-sist with train-ing and skills trans-fer at the cen-tre.. He
added that the Gov-ern-ment was al-so look-ing for-ward to the con-tin-ued pro-vi-sion of pros-thet-ic ma-te-ri-als and sup-plies to sup-port the cen-tre’s op-er-a-tions over the com-ing years.. The min-is-ter not-ed that re-search and clin-i-cal da-ta showed T&T faced a se-ri-ous chal-lenge with low-er limb am-pu-ta-tions, av-er-ag-ing be-tween 400 and 500 an-nu-al-ly over the past decade, with di-a-bet-ic foot dis-ease ac-count-ing for the ma-jor-i-ty of cas-es.. “Di-a-betes is es-ti-mat-ed to af-fect close to 15 per cent of
our adult pop-u-la-tion, with a sig-nif-i-cant num-ber of cas-es re-main-ing un-di-ag-nosed.. This means that there are close to 150,000 of our cit-i-zens liv-ing with di-a-betes in Trinidad and To-ba-go.. Ladies and gen-tle-men, the re-al-i-ty is that rough-ly one in sev-en adults in this coun-try is di-a-bet-ic,” he said.. Thank-ing the Gov-ern-ment of In-dia and Jaipur Foot USA for help-ing to make the ser-vice per-ma-nent, the Prime Min-is-ter de-scribed the cen-tre as “a very trans-for-ma-tive de-vel-op-ment”
for mem-bers of the dif-fer-ent-ly-abled com-mu-ni-ty, not-ing that cit-i-zens would now be able to ac-cess pros-thet-ic ser-vices lo-cal-ly and free of charge, with-out the bur-den of trav-el-ling abroad or en-dur-ing high costs and long wait-ing pe-ri-ods.. She not-ed that by restor-ing mo-bil-i-ty and in-de-pen-dence, the cen-tre will help many cit-i-zens re-turn to work to sup-port their fam-i-lies.. The Prime Min-is-ter added that the cen-tre had the po-ten-tial to po-si-tion T&T as a re-gion-al hub for
spe-cialised re-ha-bil-i-ta-tion ser-vices across the Caribbean.. “May I dear say, the plan is, High Com-mis-sion-er, Min-is-ter Jais-hankar and dis-cus-sions go-ing for-ward, Min-is-ter of Health, is that this cen-tre will not just be for the peo-ple of Trinidad and To-ba-go, but we want to reach out fur-ther so we can ser-vice the Cari-com re-gion as well.. So, we will de-vel-op this cen-tre and of course, ex-pand it.” In-di-an Min-is-ter of Ex-ter-nal Af-fairs Dr Sub-rah-manyam Jais-hankar not-ed
that the de-mand for pros-thet-ics was more than what was ini-tial-ly catered for last year, but he as-sured that they would “go the ex-tra mile” to en-sure the de-mand is met.. “It is our com-mit-ment to-day to en-sure that this cen-tre func-tions to the best of its abil-i-ty and be-yond, and what-ev-er sup-port that is need-ed fur-ther from the gov-ern-ment of In-dia and my min-is-ter, we will sure-ly give.” He al-so spoke about T&T’s oth-er
health-care ini-tia-tives with In-dia, in-clud-ing sup-port-ing the haemodial-y-sis ma-chines, two sea am-bu-lances, and mak-ing med-i-cines more af-ford-able and ac-ces-si-ble.
National Prosthetics Centre, Trinidad health, prosthetic limbs, Caricom health, Dr. Lackram Bodoe, artificial limbs, medical rehabilitation