Is your child receiving the correct standard of care?

One of the interesting things that arises when 'Reach' families get together is how variable their experiences of care from health professionals can be, even within the same geographical area. Some people find that they are encouraged to attend limb fitting centres when their child is very small, others that it is a real battle to be referred. What matters is that in the early days no-one knows whether their child will be suitable for the fitting of prostheses or whether they will even take to them but it is vital for parents to have as much information as possible to make the right decisions. Often the limb fitting centres harbour the best expertise in the area and early referral could save a great deal of heartache.

In December 1977, the Amputee Medical Rehabilitation Society,a body of committed professionals produced a booklet called: 'Congenital Limb Deficiency, Recommended Standards of Care'.

They set out minimum standards of care for congenitally limb deficient children, with a view to establishing a code that will assist parents to get the best for their children and help to provide some consistency of provision throughout the country.

In October 2003 under their new name of British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine, they published the 2nd edition of Standards and Guidelines for Amputee and Prosthetic Rehabiliation and included a section on Congenital Limb Deficiency.