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Rehabilitation of Traumatic and Orthopaedic Patients

1964; BMJ; Volume: 1; Issue: 5376 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1136/bmj.1.5376.173

0959-8138

G. C. Fletcher, Victor H. Wheble,

Musculoskeletal Disorders and Rehabilitation

In 1935 a committee of the British Medical Association made a report on the treatment of fractures in which the results of treating cases in fracture clinics under the care of orthopaedic surgeons were compared with results obtained by other means, particular notice being taken of the decrease in time off work. No one who has studied this report could fail to be convinced of the effectiveness of fracture clinics in hospitals. In addition, however, the Committee suggested something which was quite new at the time. It recommended that rehabilitation centres should be established in each industrial area. Under the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944 the Government has provided something of this nature in the form of industrial rehabilitation units in various parts of the country, particularly where there are high concentrations of industry. These units have, however, in the past been used mainly for the rehabilitation of patients who have been off work for long periods. Yet it has been shown by Plewes et al. (1948), using a special unit in the Vauxhall Motor Works at Luton, that better results can be obtained if industrial rehabilitation is begun as soon as possible after an injury or other disability. Here the conditions were ideal in that the patients passing through the rehabilitation units were from one large industrial organization and were dealt with from the medical and financial point of view by their own management. Plewes et al. recom mended that group industrial rehabilitation centres should be based on up-to-date and well-staffed hospitals where facilities for diagnosis and prompt surgical treatment are present.