Helping Community Physiotherapists Provide Safe Treatment in a Pandemic
SIT’s Professional Officers conduct mask fitting and Personal Protective Equipment training to community and home-based physiotherapists
The Vesak Day Public Holiday on 7 May 2020 was a little different for four of SIT’s Professional Officers. Justine Vincent Ramos, Mohamed Shazni Bin Badaruzaman, Tan Yong Ming and Lazarus Samuel Gill all stepped up to answer the call from the Ministry of Health (MOH) to conduct training for frontline physiotherapists to keep them and their clients safe during the extended Circuit Breaker period.
MOH had reached out to SIT to conduct the training for these physiotherapists, following the announcement that various allied health services outside of public healthcare institutions would be re-classified as essential services and allowed to operate during the extended Circuit Breaker period from 29 April.
Within a week, logistics and safety measures were in place for the training to take place at SIT@Dover.
About 20 physiotherapists, who come from a variety of settings – from community hospitals to day rehabilitation centres to nursing homes and rehabilitation-based residential care facilities – attended the session the session, where they learnt the principle of hand hygiene and the use of Personal Protective Equipment. They also underwent an N95 mask-fit test on specific N95 respirator models.
