The Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology at the Government General Hospital in Chennai signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Deputy, a Johnson and Johnson company focused on orthopaedics, for establishing an orthopaedic skills lab.

Deputy has provided Rs 24 lakh for the first phase of the project, the first in India. The lab will enable trainees in orthopaedics to master surgical and psychomotor skills to treat patients in a better way. The lab will offer periodic training to post-graduate students and young surgeons across the State.

Dr Mayil Vahanan Natarajan, head, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Madras Medical College, who was instrumental in setting up the lab, said the department has over 300 beds and treats hundreds of patients every day.

"The orthopaedic skills lab will improve the surgical and psychomotor skills of the orthopaedic trainees. They get adequately trained on areas like trauma, upper limb, lower limb, spine, arthroscopy, joint replacement and pelvis paediatrics before their live performance on the patients of the government hospital," he said.

The Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Madras Medical College, has the potential to be upgraded to a specialized institute of Orthopaedics, he added.

The state government has proposed to build new trauma care centres in Kilpauk Medical College, Stanley Medical College and government hospitals in Krishnagiri, Madurai and Vellore, said Health Secretary V K Subburaj, who was also present on the occasion.