Amputee Rehabilitation Program

Directions and Contact

The amputee program is an eight bed in-patient program located at Parkwood Hospital of St. Joseph's Health Care London. We are a regional program serving Southwestern Ontario. The primary mandate of the program is to fit individuals who have lost a lower limb with an artificial limb (prosthesis) and to train and educate them in its use. (Individuals with upper limb amputations are normally managed on an out-patient basis.)

The majority of potential candidates for the program are first assessed through the outpatient amputee clinic. An appointment for the clinic is usually booked for the patient by their surgeon or family doctor, by way of a referral/consult. At the clinic the patient is assessed by the doctor, with other amputee team members present. These may include the physiotherapist, nurse clinician, occupational therapist, social worker and a representative from a private prosthetic firm the amputee program works with that make artificial limbs. At the amputee clinic, a decision is made as to whether or not the individual would be an appropriate candidate to receive an artificial leg. Their name is then put on the waiting list to be admitted to the inpatient program. Patients put on the waiting list are given information as what to expect when they are eventually admitted to the inpatient unit.

Those patients put on the waiting list will be telephoned by the nurse clinician to inform them when there is a bed available for them to be admitted to the program. A few days notice is normally given.

• Refer a patient to the inpatient Amputee Rehabilitation Program