LOCAL physiotherapist Marg Perrott has just returned from working in China for two weeks. She is part of a program that aims to assist local physios expand their skills treating sports injuries and orthopaedic surgery. The program has an experienced Australian physio visiting for two weeks every month.
Marg was working at the Nanjing Sports Injury and Chinese Medicine Hospital. This included working mornings in the Famous Doctors Clinic – similar to working in private practice. Senior doctors and surgeons from Nanjing and other parts of China visit and work in this clinic.
Afternoons were either at the Nanjing Sports Training Institute or in the hospital rehabilitation unit. The athletes were junior judo athletes with a variety of injuries – wrists, ankles, foot fractures and back pain. The rehab centre work was mainly ankle or knee ligament reconstructions and Achilles tendon repairs.
Marg commented: “The Chinese people were keen to access physiotherapy treatment. They were very stoic and could manage to exercise really hard – with one guy sweating so much that his sweat was dripping on the floor. He was very proud of how hard he could work. It was interesting that there were as many posterior cruciate ligament reconstructions as anterior (ACLs), where most surgeries in Australia are ACLs. Many of the PCLs were from scooter/moped accidents.”
One of the challenges was working in a different language.
“Local physio Sherry, who was translating is an excellent physio and she set up translator apps to facilitate the process. Learning a few useful Chinese words and questions also helped,” Ms Perrott said.
It is likely that Marg will be invited back and she hopes to be able to visit during the cherry blossom season.
