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You and YoursΒ - Transcript Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 |
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TX: 13.07.04 - ELECTRIC WHEELCHAIRS IN SHORT SUPPLY DUE TO LACK OF FUNDING PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON |
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THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT.Β BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. ROBINSON Well powered wheelchairs are the only way that many people with severe disabilities can get about independently but they are expensive and if you find yourself in a position where you have to ask the health service for one you'll usually be advised to buy it yourself or to approach a charity. The Muscular Dystrophy Campaign has produced a report on the inadequate provision of powered chairs on the NHS and the long waiting lists. Darrell Pearson from Pucklechurch near Bristol is a case in point. He's 12 and he has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. He was nine when his step-mum, Jeanette Pearson, first applied to the NHS wheelchair services for an electric model. But it wasn't as straightforward as she'd hoped.Β PEARSON My first dealings with them were in year 2001 when Darrell went off his feet permanently when he was nine and they did supply him with a manual wheelchair. We tried to get funding for an electric wheelchair, they were only able to manage to supply an indoor electric wheelchair, which is great for indoors but he's a young lad who needs to be out and about and he has every right to do so. A series of letters started coming through sort of August to October 2002, which basically said that although Darrell had been referred to them to be assessed by them for a wheelchair that there's a lengthy wait just for an appointment. When I phoned up they said yes I might get an appointment by March of 2003, which was six months, but it would still be another 12-18 months, maybe, if I got a wheelchair, no guarantee. So even now, and we're at July 2004, he still might not have one under the NHS system.Β I spoke to the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign and they had a look around for us and the Joseph Patrick Memorial Trust, together with Somerfields, here in Bristol , actually raised the money between them and bought Darrell a brand new wheelchair outright - it was £5½ thousand. Darrell can now go up the road to see his friends on his own, he can go down the shop, he can buy things for himself, he can run little errands for me which he does do, he's very good like that and he likes to help. If he's playing in the kitchen and he wants something in his room he can just go there, he's not having to sit and wait or ask somebody and also seeing his friends - he's 12½ years old now - he doesn't want to go up the road and see a friend with me tagging along as well because I have to. So it has made a huge difference to him, complete difference.Β ROBINSON Jeanette Pearson. South Gloucestershire primary care trust which funds and manages wheelchair provision in Darrell's area told us that their budget for wheelchairs is under pressure and they say it's because new and more advanced wheelchairs are more expensive and also because more people with disabilities are now living independently and so creating more demand. Christine Cryne is chief executive of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. Many people who have wheelchairs would really like electric ones, lots of older people have husbands or wives who end up pushing them about and would really like an electric chair. If everyone can't have one how would you prioritise?Β CRYNE Well I'd actually say back to the Government about the promise that they made and in fact what Tony Blair said back in 2000 when there was an Audit Commission report and he said we cannot have a situation where older people and disabled people are let down in the way this report implies. Since then there was another audit report in 2002 and here we are another two years later and so many parts of the country are in a complete mess. There are good places and the wheelchair services are doing their best but what we'd actually like the Government to do is to really - to actually come in on the promise that they were talking about then.Β ROBINSON As we heard in Darrell's case his wheelchair ended up costing £5½ thousand now if charities are able to meet some of those costs surely that's a good thing.Β CRYNE We can't meet all the demand that's out there, out estimations are that there's 40,000 people who need an electric wheelchair and the actual government, PCTs etc., are only meeting about a quarter of that need. That's a big, big resource that needs filling. And what we're actually asking is for something to be done. It's not for the want of trying with the wheelchair services, they've produced a set of very good best practice guidelines for all of the services across the country but unless there's some more resources those are just not going to be met.Β ROBINSON And is it as simple as that, there's nothing then that the primary care trust could be doing to manage the money that they've got more effectively?Β CRYNE I think they have to really look very carefully about what other resources that they've got in - they need to actually fulfil and there are opportunities in terms of working with charities to fund where they can. But at the end of the day there are two issues that the campaign would really like to see - one is ring fenced earmarked funding for wheelchairs and the other one is a uniform system of actually the allocation of the types of wheelchairs so that, for example, if someone's got a particular problem, regardless of where they are, they get that wheelchair. And the under fives, for example, in certain parts of the country you can't get a wheelchair.Β ROBINSON Christine Cryne thank you very much indeed.Β Back to the You and Yours homepage The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ is not responsible for external websites |
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